Charities in focus The Saoirse Foundation

Children’s charity in crisis as directors quit

By Michael O'Farrell - Investigations Editor

May 24, 2015

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By Michael O’Farrell

Investigations Editor

A PROMINENT national children’s charity has been engulfed in controversy with the majority of its board resigning expressing concerns over how its finances are run.

This week four of the seven directors quit, including the chairman and treasurer of the Saoirse Foundation, leaving just founder and chief executive Tony Heffernan, his wife Mary and one other director in place.

The concerns over financial irregularities have been reported to the Charities Regulation Authority (CRA) and gardaí.

Last night Mr Heffernan called the situation ‘a mess’ which had arisen because the Saoirse Foundation had ‘a dysfunctional board’. However, he insisted that allegations about governance – financial or otherwise – are unfounded.

‘These issues are private, were all being dealt with in a professional manner and should never be in the public domain,’ he said.

The Saoirse Foundation is widely known for its Bumbleance service which provides specially adapted ambulances for sick children.

018.1ST.24 2 — Irish Mail on Sunday – May 24, 2015

The charity is also building a large respite centre close to Tralee for families with sick children and funds research into rare conditions such as Batten disease – which took the lives of the Heffernans’ two children.

According to correspondence obtained by the MoS the shock resignations came after a February board agreement to undertake a forensic accounting and governance review of the Saoirse Foundation was not fulfilled. Correspondence sent to the Saoirse Foundation on behalf of the four departed directors last month raises a number of concerns including: • Apparent discrepancies of as much as €70,000 in the amount an external fundraiser claims to have donated; • The manner in which €270,000 was paid to foreign research institutions; • The apparent payment of ‘significant expenses’ to the chief executive despite public claims on the Saoirse Foundation website that the entire board does not receive payment or expenses.

But Mr Heffernan denied there was anything untoward about the charity’s affairs and insisted he had not blocked the financial review. Instead, he said he had objected to an open-ended audit contract which had no cap on either the length of time it would take or how much it would cost.

‘There has been no resistance to a governance review taking place within the charity or anything like that. The issues were that it would be done in an open and transparent manner – that was the issue,’ he said.

Mr Heffernan said the board would ‘now take the necessary steps to appoint an appropriate independent firm to conduct a full governance review’.

In relation to expenses, Mr Heffernan said he did receive vouchedfor expenses and that a mistake on the website indicating the opposite had now been rectified.

Mr Heffernan denied there was ‘a dispute’ about donations from fundraisers and said the money paid to foreign research bodies was ‘made on foot of contracts signed and approved in 2012 and 2013’.

Another issue raised by the departed directors involves a reported theft of equipment worth €800 from the Saoirse Foundation’s Bumbleance while it was at the National Ploughing Championships last September.

Publicity following the alleged theft resulted in a flood of donations totalling €40,000.

According to internal correspondence, some directors were concerned by conflicting reports about the robbery. ‘The chairman has sought clarification of the issue from the CEO but has received no adequate response,’ the correspondence reads.

The MoS understands that a subsequent examination of the ambulance’s internal CCTV system appeared to show no theft on the day in question. This footage was made available to gardaí as part of a complaint sent to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation this week.

Reacting to these concerns, Mr Heffernan said he had reported the theft at the time and was happy for gardaí to investigate.

Those who resigned on Monday include the Saoirse Foundation’s treasurer, Eugene Cotter. Dr Cotter, who treated the Heffernan children when they fell ill, is a Kerry-based GP and director of the Tralee family planning and women’s health clinic.

When asked why he had resigned, Dr Cotter said he felt he had to on foot of the ‘reservations and concerns’ he and other directors had outlined in the correspondence obtained by the MoS.

Saoirse Foundation chairman Tim Lavery, who has been involved in several charities, also resigned this week. Mr Lavery, a prominent entomologist, declined to comment other than to confirm his resignation. Dr Fergus Leahy, the paediatric consultant who originally treated Saoirse Heffernan, also resigned as a director this week.

‘Four of us resigned together. We resigned together en masse,’ he said, declining to elaborate on his reasons.

David Hall, the founder of the Irish Mortgage Holders Association and managing director of ambulance firm Lifeline, which supplies services to the foundation, also quit. ‘Earlier this week I resigned as a director and reported my concerns to the gardaí,’ he said.

In their letters, directors complained they had been effectively prevented by the chief executive from resolving their concerns.

The MoS has confirmed that some of those concerns were first raised in a letter to Charities Regulation Authority chief executive, Úna Ní Dhubhghaill, in March.

Mr Heffernan said he too had gone to the authority. ‘There’s a load of allegations all of which we can answer openly and honestly and we’ve also been in contact with the charity regulator,’ he said.

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