Air ambulance in Ireland still hopes to provide service
Howard Lake | 17 September 2010 | News
The air ambulance charity in Northern Ireland has relaunched its website and a detailed rebuttal of claims made in the media about its fundraising and expenses.
The website says that the organisation is still fundraising but accepts that media reports, particularly by the BBC, has damaged its fundraising income. Last year, a BBC investigation revealed that 90% of the money collected by the Ireland Air Ambulance Charity in its first year went on wages and overheads.
The charity does admit that it still does not have an agreement with the statutory sector in relation to the use of an air ambulance.
“We’re currently awaiting feedback from the statutory stakeholders in Northern Ireland as to how the Minister wishes to progress the question of a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service,” a charity spokesperson said.
Air ambulance has also appointed a new board — Liam Creagh, Peter Fearon ,John Hutchinson, Mal McGreevy, Michael Montgomery and Aidan Rice.
The new website includes a section called ‘Was it a scam?’ The answer it gives is ‘no’ but the organisation admits that it doesn’t know if it will succeed in establishing an air ambulance in Northern Ireland.
In the meantime, the organisation says it needs to raise £1.5 million annually to run the service.
www.irelandairambulance.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.