Half of charities fear public trust in their work has been permanently damaged by the top-ups and pay-offs scandal at the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC).

The Society of St Vincent de Paul may be forced to cut back vital appeal services this Christmas after suffering a 25% slump in donations due to the Central Remedial Clinic top-ups scandal.

Central Remedial Clinic officials will not be allowed to “walk off into the sunset” and will be forced to face the consequences of the top-ups scandal engulfing the group.

There is an oft-quoted anecdote about a meeting in the early summer of 1829 between the Liberator Daniel O’Connell and a Kerry road worker shortly after the Roman Catholic Relief Act — Catholic Emancipation — had been passed by the House of Commons.

There has been a 40% cent drop in donations to charity in the two weeks since the scandal of top-ups to executives' salaries was revealed.

Disability service campaigners have branded the deepening Central Remedial Clinic top-ups scandal as “disgusting” and said the crisis has the potential to “cripple” the charity sector.

Corporate donations to charities fell by more than a quarter last year, a new study has found.

New figures show that donations to charities by private companies fell by more than a quarter, or 27% over Christmas 2012, compared to 2011.