Prime Time will have a programme on charities including Peter McVerry tonight

Brendan Burgess said:
These guys are doing very good work.

The lobbying is only a small part of their work.

I don't agree with their lobbying but I respect them for the work they do.

Brendan
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They advocate for policies that make our housing shortage and rent affordability problems worse while also advocating for more tax payers money to be spent mitigating the results of those bad policies.

So no, I don't think they are doing good work.
I think that most of them are well intentioned but you know what they say about good intentions.
 
A good letter in the Irish Times today:

"A chara, – A very curious letter from the CEO of Trocáire (“Europe faces key choices in election”, June 6th). The rhetoric, ideology, assumptions, positions and politics all read like any other left-wing NGO. The rhetoric is rather comical and includes the call for MEPs to stand for “justice”, as opposed, presumably, to other MEPs who are campaigning for injustice.

Trócaire is a Catholic overseas development agency, part of the Catholic Church’s Caritas Internationalis. However, if seems Trócaire has a problem with this and is mostly interested in echoing, copying and struggling to keep up with secular, left-wing agendas. It has a problem promoting and defending Catholic teaching, particularly the universal right to life, under attack throughout the world, but which doesn’t get a mention anywhere in the letter.

This post will be deleted if not edited immediately told his followers that they are the salt of the earth, but he also warned them that if salt loses its taste, it is no longer fit for purpose. Hopefully this is not the case with Trócaire. – Yours, etc,

CIARÁN Mac GUILL,
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(Full disclosure: I am a long-term supporter of Trócaire).

Supplementary disclosure: I am currently reviewing this position.)
 
I supported, collected for and was involved in Concern for 25 years. I cancelled my standing order a few years ago due to their politics.

Since then I have donated to UNICEF but I am reviewing that due to their anti Israeli stance.
 
Like a lot of other people, I shook the can for charity collections, gave my time freely and donated to various charities ,we Irish are very generous for good causes.

However, with the professional era of 'charities' and proliferation of duplicate charities something needs to be done to protect the Irish public.

How can a number of purported professional bodies be allowed to function when they refuse to disclose their accounts so the public can see where their donations are going.

With over 11k registered charities in Ireland the wage bill must be astronomical, imagine what could be done with this money if it was actually used for the purpose the charity was established for.

While some charities do good work, charities working in the same area should be amalgamated to reduce duplication and wastage.

It's obvious the charities regulator is not fit for purpose, especially after the Prime time programme and I would be very surprised if they were not qlready referred to the ombudsman, I don't think they are are on the exempt agencies list.
 
Equality said:
With over 11k registered charities in Ireland the wage bill must be astronomical, imagine what could be done with this money if it was actually used for the purpose the charity was established for.
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I am sure that there is some waste, but I am also sure that most of the work they do is reasonably efficient.

I would guess that they are much more efficient than if the civil service did it directly.

Brendan
 
With over 11k registered charities in Ireland the wage bill must be astronomical
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I would caution claims like this without actual details of charity type location, purpose, size etc.
I strongly suspect that a significant majority of "charities" are small local versions of "cat rescue" types.

I am sure that there is some waste, but I am also sure that most of the work they do is reasonably efficient.
I would guess that they are much more efficient than if the civil service did it directly.
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I would respectfully disagree here as quite a lot of the civil/public service would also fall under "reasonably efficient".

While some charities do good work, charities working in the same area should be amalgamated to reduce duplication and wastage.
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I feel there is merit in this but who will decide what /where is duplication/wastage.
In any job if you were to query a random sample of employees, the vast majority really believe the organisation would fall apart without them.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
These guys are doing very good work.
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Heard Peter McVerry speak at an event in my son's school. He didn't shirk from the problems that they have. He also highlighted all the other work they do besides housing people. Homeless people coming in with teeth in bits and paying thousands to get them fixed. People being hounded by drug dealers for money, having their tents set on fire. Paying for new clothes, tents, sleeping bags and moving them across the country so they can get away from the dealers.

There are of course questions to be answered on their governance and management but I don't think it will be found that there were fingers in the till.
 
Steven Barrett said:
Heard Peter McVerry speak at an event in my son's school. He didn't shirk from the problems that they have. He also highlighted all the other work they do besides housing people. Homeless people coming in with teeth in bits and paying thousands to get them fixed. People being hounded by drug dealers for money, having their tents set on fire. Paying for new clothes, tents, sleeping bags and moving them across the country so they can get away from the dealers.

There are of course questions to be answered on their governance and management but I don't think it will be found that there were fingers in the till.
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350,000 would buy a lot of sleeping bags, clothes and tents. That's the sum in question PMVT paid out to an organisation it has no association with, other than a former CEO taking up a role there.

I don't think Peter McVerry can be relied on anymore for an full accounting of what the organisation is doing in his name.
 
Taking a step back... this is an organisation with hundreds of staff, with paid contracts with the HSE... these should not be getting regulated in the same manner as a small scale Cat Rescue charity run by volunteer staff. Maybe should not be under the remit of Charity Regulator at all.
 
Accountability seems to an issue within the McVerry trust as well. There have been property deals done by them with family members benefiting from the deals. Long term contracts going to same people over many years and being sanctioned by well placed family members within the McVerry outfit.
Sadly its not the only "charity" at this racket
 
T McGibney said:
A sports club is not a charity.
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Unless they've a poor defence :)

What I meant to convey was that there are small scale charities, like sports clubs, that are not in receipt of regular state funding \ HSE contracts but that can apply for and receive one off grants from public funds, where there is criteria \ application \ submission process they need to follow for those grants.
 
The public need to take a bit of responsibility for where they donate. Most people seem to do very little research about the organisations they give to.

A tenner here or there to a group you know nothing about is wasteful. Better to choose a smaller number and give each one at least €250 a year so they can get the tax relief.
 
The reluctance of many charities to look critically or objectively at their governance seems to be a problem.
They should see the need to not just be squeaky clean but to also look squeaky clean.
Reasonable lengths of services on boards, looking for new board members, audit committee members (having an audit committee) from outside the usual suspects might help.
I heard someone recently say that he’d been chair of HIS charity for 20 years and didn’t feel ready to step down and hand over to someone less qualified. Didn’t seem to realise how that looked and also didn’t see that there was a need to have a succession plan.

Sports clubs have to sign up to a code of governance if they get government funding. I don’t know anyone in Sport Ireland reads the papers they file.

The charity regulator should be asking for charities to do the same and following up where there are poor structures such as board members never changing. Maybe they do, but if so I’m not sure it’s working.
 
Annieindublin said:
The reluctance of many charities to look critically or objectively at their governance seems to be a problem...
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That's a reflection on the quality of people these organisations hire and the culture they propagate (the tone is set at the top).
 
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