Irish parliamentarian calls for openness on street collection costs
Howard Lake | 21 February 2014 | News
The public should not have to ‘drag out’ of charity street direct debit collectors what they are paid, a TD has told the Irish Dáil.
Patrick O’Donovan asked that charities in receipt of state funding in particular should be required to explain their costs from the outset. He said that, on almost any urban street in Ireland, you can encounter a face-to-face fundraiser or representative of an organisation funded by Irish Aid with a clipboard and “you have to drag out of them what percentage of the money winds up sinking the bore hole in Uganda”.
He called on Minister of State Joe Costello to encourage agencies to “level with” the people they stop on the street about “the percentage the collector gets, the percentage the NGO gets for administration and the percentage the person in the developing country benefits from”.
According to the Irish Times, Mr O’Donovan raised the issue during questions on foreign affairs. He wanted to receive Government assurances that the salaries paid to senior executives in organisations working overseas and funded by Irish Aid were not ‘topped up’.
His comments follow the revelation that Angela Kerins, chief executive of Rehab, which operates services for people in disability in Ireland, the UK and Poland, has a total remuneration package of €272,000.
Next week the Dail Public Accounts Committee will hold further hearings on charity salaries.
Photo: transparent euro sign by Kostsov on Shutterstock.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.