Letter from the Irish Red Cross

Yes I got one of those mailings as well. All their donors got it.

You should see the email sent to IRC local members at branch level from their Head of Fundraising just before the donor mail was issued. It makes light of the scandal involving their secret Tipperary Bank Account and even cracks a joke about it. It was posted on Noel Wardick's blog http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com

This mailing you got is all spin. The Irish Red Cross has not cleaned up its act. Have you see in recent media articles on them in the Sunday Times 3rd July, Sunday Indo article 17th July and the adjournment debate in the Dail on the 29th June??? I think if you get a chance to read these you will know all is the same at the Irish Red Cross. In the Dail on 29th July Minister Shatter publicly criticised the Board for not replacing long serving members and for not producing its 2009 and 2010 Annual Reports. He wrote to Irish Red Cross on 16th May asking them to do so. 12 days later at their Board meeting they re-appointed all their long serving members including the primary power broker, their Vice Chairman (the man behind the secret Tipp bank account). He was re-appointed for the 21st year in a row!!! And still the Irish Red Cross tell everyone they are reforming. Its a joke. The same people are the real bosses. No-one was held to account for the Tiperary money, Noel Wardick still remains fired even though IRC has admitted everything he said was correct. What about the €600k Haiti money spent in Ireland? Why arent they returning that money to the Haiti fund? What about their secret and undeclared €7 million property portfolio that the external auditors have stated in writing in their accounts breaches Standard Accounting Practice because they have failed to declare them as income and assets in their accounts. These properties were donated by people who have died and Irish Red Cross has failed to declare them or record them and no-one knows what they are being used for and who is paying rent, earnng rent etc etc. A pure scandal.

Its your call but Medicien Sans Frontiers dont have these problems so personally I would stick with them!

Dear Bright Eyes,

Link below. Go to comment 7 I think.

http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com/2011/07/minister-shatter-criticises-irish-red.html#comments

I see an article in Irish Independent today 23rd July. How the Irish Red Cross Vice Chairman is still in place is now beyond a mystery and trying to blame staff for his decision to keep a large amount of money secret from head office is just disgusting and amounts to the lowest of the low. Real scrapping the barrell stuff by Irish Red Cross.

All other aid agencies focusing on Somalia. Irish Red Cross focusing on spin and covering its backside despite all the evidence that they have serious questions to answer and heads need to roll. The You Tube video made by the ex AIB banker is plain and simple narcissistic and even more so when we see what is happening in east Africa

Plum job at Red Cross for banker

Despite paying grants, Minister kept in dark on ex-AIB man's €95k-a-year role

Monopoly for charity allows them ignore all criticism and public don't have any control over IRC

I have a question about this letter - I got something from them a couple of weeks ago about the scandal, but I never made any donations to the Irish Red Cross, though I did give to the Japanese Red Cross in relation to the March earthquake and the devastation it caused out there in Japan. Would THAT have got me onto the IRC's mailing list?

Oscail wrote: »

Dear Bright Eyes,

Link below. Go to comment 7 I think.

http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com/2011/07/minister-shatter-criticises-irish-red.html#comments

I see an article in Irish Independent today 23rd July. How the Irish Red Cross Vice Chairman is still in place is now beyond a mystery and trying to blame staff for his decision to keep a large amount of money secret from head office is just disgusting and amounts to the lowest of the low. Real scrapping the barrell stuff by Irish Red Cross.

All other aid agencies focusing on Somalia. Irish Red Cross focusing on spin and covering its backside despite all the evidence that they have serious questions to answer and heads need to roll. The You Tube video made by the ex AIB banker is plain and simple narcissistic and even more so when we see what is happening in east Africa

could someone explain, why did they not declare this large amount to head office, what were they going to do with it,

i thought that when an organisation had alot of different monies coming in, that there would be one main account that all the money could be lodged in, so as to keep up to date with what they had, but with accounts in different banks it make it more complicated, or, had they forgotten that they had this in the bank

Godge wrote: »

I have lost a lot of belief in institutionalised charities. Whether it is Trocaire or Concern spending my money lobbying the government, making ads for the TV or on PR, or the likes of the Red Cross where we don't know where the money is spent, it is difficult.

I find it better to think local, to do voluntary work for the school, football team, scout group in my local area, to donate time to them. If you don't have time, rather than donating money, better to give a set of footballs or hurleys, a computer for the school etc. so you know where your money is going.

that is a very good idea, i have always collected for the heart foundation, cancer, aware, and like you i think i also have done my bit,

I have reviewed with interest the latest marketing campaign by the Irish Red Cross which to me appears as nothing more than a cynical attempt to actually put these problems behind them without ever addressing them. The "questions and answers" section on their website attempting to explain the recent (and not so recent) shambles is nothing short of insulting to the intelligent Members, Volunteers and Staff of the Irish Red Cross, not to mention the Irish Taxpayer. The problems at the Irish Red Cross cannot be "explained away". I personally suspect many of these problems actually transgress into corporate crime but of course that has not been proved so thats important to note. Time will hopefully tell. I look forward to reviewing the response to the IRC (question and answers) in the recent blog article http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com

However in the mean time I just wanted to note something curious I noticed today. Usually when I wish to get to this blog I just type in "governancereformatirishredcross" into Google and this blog is usually top of the list, as one would expect as it's quite a unique search title. Today however I noticed that on top of the list is actually a link to the IRC website under the banner "FIND REAL ANSWERS ABOUT THE IRISH RED CROSS" I really thought this was actually quite funny, I figured the IRC are as entitled as anyone to get their story, spin, blurb whatever you want to call it out there. My slight amusement then turned to astonishment when I noticed that this banner had the word "ad" in the top right hand corner. So, I stand to be corrected on this, I am assuming this is actually an ad that the IRC have paid Google to display, linked (again assuming) to any search related to "governancereformatirishredcross". So the IRC have made a failed attempt to sue Google trying to shut down this blog (how much money wasted??)......and now they appear to be paying Google to advertise the Irish Red Cross in any search associated with this blog!!!!!!!!!! The mind boggles.

Apologies for posting above article 3 times. Not sure how it happened but was attempting to edit the slight typo in the title. Not sure how to remove the multiple posts so again, apologies.

i always saw the red cross as a huge organisation, seeing their ambulances at sports events, and always gave to collections for this organisation,

miju wrote: »

I suppose though the question of this thread is that given all thats gone on would you still give to collections now?

i would like to know the truth in laymans language, and i dont know the whole story

Dear Ronan,

With the greatest respect to you but you are becoming a farcical character along the lines of Sadam Hussein's infamous spokesperson who became known as Comical Ali. For those who dont recall Comical Ali stood in Baghdad stating that the city would never fall to American forces when suddenly American tanks appeared up the street behind him and the whole thing was caught on camera!!

Ronan, your naivity is truly something to behold. You are risking your professional career by becoming the mouthpiece for a disreputable and disgraced regime at the Irish Red Cross. You must be one of the most gullible individuals I have ever come across. I genuinely feel sorry for you because becoming an apologist for the Irish Red Cross will cause you no end of trauma and pain in time. Rest assured the Irish Red Cross has committed many many wrongs and most sensible thinking people now accept this. The recent calls for police and fraud squad intervention are worth serious consideration.

Everytime you issue your disingenuous and false statements you do untold damage to your personal reputation. You are becoming a highly discredited individual as a result. Initially you were ankle deep in deceit, now you are knee deep. You can still get out but you are sinking fast. Listen to this advice. You did not cause the problems but you are rapidly becoming part of the problem. You have time but not much.

The idea of public meetings is excellent but has been suggested many times in the past. The Irish Red Cross has always refused. As the Blog has reported the Society has failed to hold a national assembly for all its members since 2005. The scheduled ones in 2007 and 2009 were cancelled as reported by the blog. This is a failure of organisational democracy. Please stop your patronising nonsense Ronan that 'the public hearings are a good idea and I will pass on your suggestion'. This is just more of your spin trying to appear genuine and cooperative. If Irish Red Cross is terrified to hold an open meeting of all its members its not going to hold a meeting of the general public. The reason is because the likes of the Vice Chariman and Treasurer and most of the Board will be forced to step down by the general membership and/or the public at any such meeting. The Irish Red Cross has turned into a sorry pathetic dictatorship and you have become their mouthpiece. You are losing all individual credibility.

By the way Google Adwords are provided by Google free of charge for CHARITABLE purposes and should therefore not be used to lie, deceive and spin and to attempt to shut down the excellent and informative blog written by Noel Wardick, the senior manager who Irish Red Cross fired for telling the truth.

Read the Blog for the truth. Its most recent article dismantles the Q&A spin drafted by Irish Red Cross which insults the intelligence of every single person who ever gave money to the Irish Red Cross and is deeply insulting to current and former staff

http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com

And as for trying to blame the link with government for the Irish Red Cross dysfunction once again Ronan you disgrace yourself. Some of the most determined and honest reform minded board memebrs of Irish Red Cross over the years have been government nominees. They have since the late 1980's been a constant thorn in the side of the Vice Chairman and his cohorts. The Irish Red Cross has always made the lives of these people hell and many of them resigned or just left demoralised, appalled, shocked and disillusioned. Breaking the link with government follows the same strategy that saw Noel Wardick and others fired. Remove all reform minded people, remove anyone who questions the leadership and especially remove any person who tells the truth.

Ronan, you have backed the wrong horse. The Irish Red Cross is an exact mirror image of the Catholic Church...once upon a time you could do what you want and get away with it. Now you cant! That day is gone. You might remain in power but you face oblivion and irrelevance. As someone said to me some time back Irish Red Cross is a by-word for dysfunction, misgovernance, cronyism and abuse of power. Until you remove the individuals responsible especially the Vice Chairman and Treasurer nothing will change. But Ronan you and others are too scared to call for their removal and as a result you are left doing demeaning tasks like preparing disgusting Q&As that few if any believe.

So Comical Ronan, wake up. Dont sacrafice your career defending people who couldnt care one bit about you and who will dump you as soon as you are no longer useful to them. Your five predecessors were very honorable people. They would never have allowed themselves become the mouthpiece for such dishonesty. Sad that you apparently have.

gmoyne --- thank you for that, you are lucky you kept copies of all paperwork that passed through your hands,
i have a question, the monies that was not sent to foreign aid, where was that spent,
as you can see that i am interested in where charity monies go, as i have also collected for charities, and have wondered if the money i collected went to the charity, is it possible that some of it could be going elsewhere. and when i think back, i must have collected loads, as i used to go out a few times of year for different organisatins, like, aware, the heart foundation, cancer research, things that effect most families including my own over the yrs,

gmoyne wrote: »

That is an excellent question and I have spent many years trying to get an answer. We can rely on one thing and that is during the Haiti Appeal there appears to have been an excess of approx. 600k put into the General fund of the Irish Red Cross. One can only ponder as to the level of funds that went astray this way during other appeals over the years. I do know that during my tenure monies were spent on project designs and such things as expensive consultants and such like that never saw the light of day. monies were also retained and the interest also appears to have been retained.

As with the Tsunami Appeal of which the Vice Chairman of the Society was involved, it appears they have so much money in Tipperary that it was a case of they forgot 162k was sitting there for three years. I believe it was found in a secret audit. Of course the recovery of this money was not voluntary!

The Audited accounts don't give a concise breakdown, but luckily some diligent people I know, kept accurate records over the years so come the time when there is an official investigation there might be more questions than answers for some individuals. As with poker you don't play all you cards!

The Red Cross is a brilliant organisation and it has some wonderful people involved who in it for their own correct reasons, however the management forget that they are not the Red Cross they are only as good as the members they represent !

by the recovery of the money not being voluntary, did someone think it was theirs to keep,
tipperary being your average county, how did it stay hidden for three yrs, as we have to hand up our tax returns every year, does that mean the tax man was not made aware of this also

gmoyne wrote: »

there are no tax implications for Charities as they are exempt from tax. however the explanations given really beggar belief. They are detailed on the blog:
http://governancereformatirishredcross.blogspot.com/

This however, is not a unique event for the Irish Red Cross. When why was on the overseas Committee we discovered monies most people couldn't even remember when the appeal was held. They came up with all sorts of excuses then also. That was before they decided we were asking too many questions and out the door we went or should I say pushed! The minute rigging was the best laugh. They were really innovative, that is until I recorded a few meetings and that persuaded the bods that I had to go !

monies that were given for the asian disaster, were kept in a bank account in this country, what good was it to the people who it was given for and when they most needed in a bank here,
who does this organisation answer to, are there rules and regulations they must follow, because the self employed in this country have to account for every penny they earn and spend, i would expect the charities to do the same, for me personally who collected for charities, and have been in habit of putting change in collection boxes, i am very disappointed, i thought the money went to the needy asap,