The current chief executive of conservation charity BirdWatch Ireland has said the previous salary for the position was “way too high”, as the organisation seeks to recover from a highly critical Charities Regulator investigation.
The State’s charities watchdog found a litany of financial oversight failings at BirdWatch Ireland, which included funding earmarked for conservation projects being diverted to cover staff salaries during periods of financial pressure.
The regulator’s report, published in early November, said funds and donations to the charity had “not been properly safeguarded” in recent years, criticising poor financial and governance oversight.
The investigation raised concerns about several matters involving the charity’s former chief executive, Declan O’Sullivan, who was in the role from 2016 until early 2020.
The report criticised his use of charity credit cards to pay for repairs to his wife’s car, as well as the fact he received a €4,000 loan from the charity in 2019. It said he was “employed on a part-time basis of 2½ days per week ... at a salary of €78,000″.
Mr O’Sullivan said his average actual days worked were four days a week, “making agreed salary an actual €48,500 average for a 2½ day week”. He added he had provided this information to the regulator.
Linda Lennon has set about improving governance since she took over as chief executive at BirdWatch Ireland in May. She is a former chief executive of the UK parole board who also ran the London Olympic Stadium. Her salary at the charity is €70,200 for 4½ days a week, which she said was her lowest wage “for about 25 plus years”.
She took the job as she had always been passionate about wildlife. “We are facing a biodiversity and climate emergency, I felt it was my chance to come in and make a difference,” she said.
“Personally I think that the salary level that it was previously was way too high”, she said.
BirdWatch Ireland has several thousand members, with 30 local branches run by volunteers. It employs about 30 staff and runs a number of nature reserves.
When Ms Lennon started in the job, the Charities Regulator investigation was ongoing.
If “the right controls” had been in place and had been followed, some of the shortcomings outlined by the regulator would not have been allowed to happen, she said. “We’ve now put these systems in place, that would never happen again,” she added.
Ms Lennon criticised the amount of time the regulator’s investigation, which began in August 2021, took to complete.
It was “a very stressful period for staff” who were doing the best they could as a small team. The organisation was trying to improve its processes, while at the same time devoting resources to answering questions from the regulator, she said.
The report also laid bare serious financial difficulties faced by the organisation. At one point in 2020 it did not have enough funds to cover the salaries of all staff. Ms Lennon said the finances of the charity were in better health now.
Part of the issue was due to delays receiving payments from State bodies for projects the charity was contracted to run, she said.
It was also “really hard” for charities to secure grant funding or donations to be spent on improving governance, she said. “The average person in the street wants to save a robin, but doesn’t necessarily want me to put a system in place to show good governance. If I said ‘will you give me a €100 donation for compliance’, that’s not sexy,” she said.
Ms Lennon said she believed following reforms already put in place, the charity could move on from the regulator’s report. “I just really hope this does not impact on our mission and saving Ireland’s birds,” she said.
