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Red Cross
“As long ago as 1999 nine
of the staff came together
on RTÉ News to call on the
Government to set up an
investigation into the running
of the charity.”
Shoddy governance, low staff
morale and a rash of inexplicable
resignations at the Red Cross
mean it’s time for a change.
m i c h a e l s m i t h
Red Cross (IRC) is
controlled by four or five people who serve on
what is called the Executive Committee (EC) – a
governance structure comprising only volun-
teers. The professionally-paid staff, includ-
ing the Secretary General, who is essentially
an administrative officer for the EC, have little
real autonomy. As a result, sources have told
Village, the IRC, like many other NGOs, is con-
trolled by people who are not full time profes-
sionals and this is reflected in many aspects of
the organisation’s operations.
Remarkably however, there is no maxi-
mum term of office for those who serve on
the EC, so members can in effect serve for life.
Furthermore, members of the IRC central
council to which the EC reports are appointed
by the Minister for Defence. Currently, the mem-
bers who control the IRC have served between
and years each without a break, on the
EC. Sources told Village that their ongoing pres-
ence and control have seriously prejudiced the
professionalisation, growth, and development
of the organisation. A significant outstand-
ing question is why the government knowingly
appointed respected Fianna Fáil grandee, for-
mer Minister for Foreign Affairs, David Andrews,
to a fourth consecutive -year term as Chairman
in April this year, bringing his total tenure to
years in , something which flies in the face
of good governance. The Minister for Defence,
Willie O’Dea, says that “the general view, except
for one or two people, is that he has been a very
good chairman”. But it does seem that the reap-
pointments owe something to simple political
patronage for an eminent member of the well-
got Andrews family. A Chairman serving for
years cannot legitimately oversee a governance
reform process where the biggest issue may be
getting long-serving members and, in particular,
officers, to step aside. This last imperative was
directly acknowledged in a report commissioned
by the IRC from Tom Finlay, a consultant. Non-
rotation is also contrary to
best practice recommenda-
tions of the International
Federation of the Red Cross
of which the Irish branch is
a component.
The EC members who
control the organisation
are predominantly inter-
ested in one aspect of IRC
work, namely ambulances
and first aid, to the detri-
ment of activities char-
acteristic of the IRC in
other jurisdictions. The Vice-Chairman, Tony
Lawlor, and Des Kavanagh, former Treasurer
for years (still an EC member), are seen,
Village was told, as conservatives. They have
continually been very “hands-on” in the day-
to-day management and decision-making, up
to and including staff hiring, staff firing and
in particular, the selection of major suppliers.
According to Brian O’Shea, TD, speaking in the
Dáil, five Secretaries General in a row have been
dismissed, although the reasons given have
tended to relate to ‘family’, ‘better opportuni-
ties’ etc. and the IRC strongly denies they were
pushed. All of these Secretaries General have, in
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— village November - December
their own way, eventually challenged the key EC
members and looked to reform governance in
the run up to their acrimonious departures. In
the case of the last resignation in May , a
letter from eighteen staff, which has been seen
by Village, describes the manner of the depar-
ture as “shocking, despicable and an utter dis-
grace”. Typically, according to sources in the
IRC, the EC endorses the reform up to the point
where a plan is to be put in place and then pres-
sure mounts to pull punches, including over the
issue of the lengthy tenure of EC members them-
selves. Then there is vigorous opposition to term
limits on EC membership. Next, the Secretary
General moves on and a new process begins. The
public always loses interest once the Sisyphean
reform process gets underway again. Currently,
we are months into a reform process and a
report is due in November.
The current Secretary General, John
Roycroft, is said to be a capable and
intelligent, if cautious, career civil servant
on a three-year loan from the Department
of Justice. Staff are eagerly, if sceptically,
awaiting his report. Media reports in recent
months; letters to the Minister of Defence,
Willie O’ Dea, from Jennifer Bulbulia, who
resigned in despair accusing the board of
“white-washing” the minutes of meetings
where criticisms were raised; and numerous
parliamentary questions raised by Labour TD,
Brian O’Shea; have forced both the IRC and
the Minister to assert on public record that a
report will be subject to discussion between
the Departments of the Taoiseach, Foreign
Affairs and Defence; and the IRC Society and
the International Federation of Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies. Mr O’Shea was
particularly concerned
at allegations that
chairman, David Andrews’
“reappointment was not
greeted internally with
any great enthusiasm”.
He noted that, “the
Minister also appoints
members to the council
of the society... these
people and the chairman
are political appointees
to an independent
organisation”. There
has been surprisingly
little media attention to
the running of this well-
respected organisation.
Staff morale has been poor for much of the last
twenty years. As long ago as , nine of the
staff came together on RTÉ News to call on the
Government to set up an investigation into
the running of the charity. And as recently
as , eighteen members of staff outlined
“outstanding” concerns including “bullying,
harassment, intimidation of staff by certain
Executive members...which has its roots
within certain quarters of the EC...[and] has
now become a very real health and safety issue
for employees” and “the overall culture and
governance/management”.
At least four expensive consultants
were employed to investigate some of these
issues. One employee told Village that there
is a culture of fear, with no-one in the central
council – to which the EC reports twice yearly –
prepared to ask hard questions. Currently IRC
staff are on pay freezes and some face redun-
dancy while huge sums of money continue to be
spent on perhaps unnecessary new ambulances
and other vehicles. Outside of key EC members,
there is widespread concern that such expendi-
ture is ill-directed. In the last three years, the
organisation has lost many of its senior staff,
including a Secretary General, public relations
officer, youth director, fund-raiser and clerical
officer. In October of the sacking of the
financial controller led to calls for his reinstate-
ment from the majority of the staff. A case is
now being taken against the charity for unfair
dismissal. An unfortunate misreporting of
the financial situation of the IRC in the Sunday
Independent allowed the Secretary General to
avoid accounting for real governance delin-
quency in the organisation, detailed in a report
in that newspaper, earlier this year. Several local
IRC branches have established bank accounts
that they do not declare to head office - to avoid
having to forward the money to the head office.
The Vice-Chairman of the IRC, Mr Tony Lawlor,
and his Tipperary branch, kept one such bank
account in Tipperary for nearly four years with
€, in it. This money was collected for
the Asian tsunami in early from the gen-
eral public, but was never declared to head
office and was only submitted to Dublin in late
, following its discovery by head office.
The Vice-Chairman was never asked to explain
publicly how so much money could remain in an
undeclared bank account for nearly four years,
and why it was not sent to the overseas depart-
ment of the organisation for use in its tsunami
work. The Chairman, David Andrews, and the
Secretary General did not ensure the matter
became public. Indeed the EC and central coun-
cil have never been informed about this mat-
ter. A source told Village that some head office
staff were furious. Nothing has happened and
as far as the Chairman, Secretary General and
Head of Finance are concerned, the matter is
closed. Village neither asserts nor believes that
any selfish motivation underlies the actions of
the parties concerned.
It is clear the IRC is not as efficacious as it
could be if it were more progressively managed.
Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that in
, the IRC provided first aid and humanitar-
ian assistance in countries around the world
that were engaged in wars or struck by natural
disasters. Volunteer numbers in the IRC have
doubled in the past five years from , to
,. The task of the organisation is noble and
most of its workers are irreproachable.
The government is fully aware of all the
issues within IRC as they have a permanent
civil servant from the department of defence
on the EC. There should be no excuses. Yet
according to the Minister, answering Dáil
questions in June, “No communication I have
received from that person has indicated to me
that there are problems”.
Nevertheless the weight of opinion, par-
ticularly from employees who have no obvious
vested interests in the matter is that it seems to
be time for Mr Andrews - a man with a record of
unimpeachable public service, but whose ubiq-
uitous instinct in the face of delinquency seems
to be to commission reports that are rarely
published, and take little or no action - to move
on. It is also clear that the incipient Charities
Regulation Bill should address issues of gover-
nance, across the charitable sector.
Red Cross
“In the last three years, the
organisation has lost many
of its senior staff, including
a Secretary General, public
relations officer, youth
director, fund-raiser and
clerical officer”
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