Q&A: How are these charity scandals emerging with Charities Regulator in place?

First Console and now St John of God. How are these charity scandals emerging when there is supposed to be a Charities Regulator in place now?

The Charities Act came into being in 2009. So far, up to 8,000 various organisations, big and small, have registered with it. And another 1,500 charities are going through registration at the moment.

The Charities Regulator says it wasn’t aware of any of the antics at Console until it saw the RTÉ Investigations Unit’s Broken Trust programme. The HSE became aware of irregularities at Console when it commenced an audit in April 2015 on foot of concerns raised by the National Office of Suicide Prevention. Its report remains in draft form at present.