Transparent Irish Aid is ‘example’ to charities

Charities in hot water over their failure to disclose financial details should follow the example of Irish Aid when it comes to transparency, the minister in charge of the programme has said.

Overseas Development Minister Joe Costello yesterday published a report on how Irish Aid spent €637m of public money helping some of the world’s poorest countries last year.

He said strict standards of audits and oversight were a must across all the channels used to route money to projects abroad, with everything from spending in the field to CEOs’ salaries open to scrutiny.