Irish Red Cross rebuffs allegations of serious debt

THE Irish Red Cross Society has denied strongly that it is “debt-ridden” after it was reported the charity is in serious debt, paralysed by bad management and in urgent need of reform.

The Red Cross said it does not have an outstanding €8.5 million debt and was satisfied with its levels of accountability, governance and transparency.

“The €8.5m debt referred to in a newspaper report does not exist.

“The Irish Red Cross has no debt on its balance sheet. The €8.5m in our 2007 accounts is in fact planned spending on a range of overseas humanitarian and disaster-relief projects,” said Red Cross spokeswoman Aoife MacEoin. She said much of this €8.5m figure is donations made by the Irish public following the Asian tsunami in 2004. Ms MacEoin also said all the money wasn’t spent immediately and the organisation will spend it over a five-year planned period.

The Irish Red Cross has not yet released its 2007 annual report, but will do so shortly as it is awaiting its translation into Irish. The spokeswoman denied the agency was in any sort of trouble – financial or otherwise. “While donations are vital to enable the Irish Red Cross to carry out its work at home and abroad, the contribution made by volunteers, staff, and overseas delegates in terms of time, expertise, and effort is immeasurable and this generosity has seen the membership of the Irish Red Cross double in the last five years from 3,000 to 6,000 volunteers throughout the country.”

According to media reports yesterday, senior figures at Irish Red Cross board level are strongly opposed to any changes in management culture even though the organisation allegedly has worrying lacunae in the area of transparency and accountability. Barrister Jenny Bulbulia tendered her resignation from the board over its failure to run the organisation to proper standards. She also accused the board of “white-washing” the minutes of meetings where criticisms were raised.