Sir, – Colm Keena's report ("Forum recommended funding for group that recruited Flannery", Front Page, March 13th) quotes the chief executive of Philanthropy Ireland as claiming that the consultancy work undertaken by Frank Flannery was not paid from any public money received by that organisation.
This explanation will seem implausible to many because the private income of Philanthropy Ireland was not sufficient to cover the salary overhead of the lobby group’s own staff in 2012, according to its audited accounts.
While there has been an intense focus on the potential contribution by Mr Flannery to the deliberations of the Public Accounts Committee, he is merely a service provider in this context, not the principal accounting officer for public funds.
The Department of Environment, Community and Local Government has already committed €2.49 million and has also agreed to fund 50 per cent of the cost of the implementation of the strategy devised by Mr Flannery and intended to increase the annual level of private charitable giving from €500 million in 2011 to €800 million in 2016.
Surely, in the interest of public trust, credibility and transparency, the Public Accounts Committee should demand that the department explain what has been accomplished with this taxpayers’ money at the half-way point of the five-year initiative. – Yours, etc,
MYLES DUFFY,
Bellevue Avenue,
Glenageary,
Co Dublin.