Public trust in charity sector must be earned

Your front page headline “We’re the real victims: Rehab” (Irish Examiner, Jan 23) is a spectacular example of how the charity sector fails to distinguish self interest from the public interest.

The reason Rehab are ‘the real victims’ is that public trust in the charity sector has been stretched to the point of rupture because of a lack of legitimacy, credibility and transparency.

What basic social accountability can exist when there is persistent grandstanding and obfuscation about an issue, such as executive compensation, in an organisation so utterly dependent on taxpayers’ and voluntary public support?