A garda investigation into the finances of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has been described by its chief executive as a "routine inquiry". The Garda Press Office said the Garda National Bureau of Fraud Investigation was carrying out the investigation.
The ISPCC's chief executive, Mr Cian O Tighearnaigh, said last night nobody had made an allegation against the ISPCC of fraud or misappropriation, and he described the Garda investigation as a "routine". He said the investigation was based on an allegation published in the Sunday Business Post in December of an "alleged under-payment of £30 to 10 people".
He told RTE radio: "We say this does not warrant tarnishing the reputation of a 100-year-old organisation which is run in an honest and accountable way and which has 400 service volunteers and 60 staff who work harder than people in any agency I know."
The Sunday Business Post article reported that the amounts in 10 sealed collectors' buckets, containing known amounts of money, were underestimated in every case by the ISPCC. The amount contained in the buckets submitted to the ISPCC's Dublin offices was £1,380, but the commission paid was calculated from a total of £1,215 - a drop of almost 9 per cent. The ISPCC pays collectors a 20 per cent commission on money raised from street collections.
Ms Mary Bennett, chairwoman of the ISPCC, told RTE television that following the newspaper article, she had asked the financial controller of the charity to contact the Garda and to invite officers to investigate the matter. A number of staff at the charity had already been interviewed and interviews were continuing this week. New cash-counting procedures had been put in place since the article was published, she added. Two people must now be present when counting took place and volunteers were to receive written and verbal instructions.
Commenting on claims by some volunteers that they had been put under heavy pressure to raise £300 each through ticket-selling for the charity, Ms Bennett said it had become clear that fund-raisers had been requested to sell three tickets for £100 each.
However, as soon as this was discovered, the ISPCC took steps to rectify it "because we did not feel that this was very easy to do".
Mr O Tighearnaigh accepted that some volunteers might have found the fund-raising "distasteful" and that it "became an issue it should never have been allowed to become". It was made clear to volunteers from the outset that fund-raising was part of their responsibility and the ISPCC felt they were ready to take on the task with considerable support.
The vast majority of the charity's 400 service volunteers were "enthusiastic supporters of all the elements of the work", he said. "All of our 60 staff and volunteers will be affronted and outraged by suggestions that are being made that they are not caring, efficient, effective, professional people who give of their time."