I knew my charity’s good name would be restored
Regulator closes enquiries
AFTER what he described as a ‘stressful’ two years, Saoirse Foundation CEO and founder Tony Heffernan said this week he never doubted his charity would earn a favourable outcome, following the Charities Regulatory Authority (CRA) decision to close its enquiries in respect of concerns it received about the foundation.
Keel-based Mr Heffernan said he now hopes the CRA decision will restore the public’s faith in his charity. “This has been tough, but a lot of charities have found it tough of late,” he said.
“When faced with something like this, you have a choice: you can cry, or you can keep going to help children, and I chose to keep going,” he added.
The charity was plunged into controversy in May 2015 after the sudden resignation of four directors.
SAOIRSE Foundation CEO Tony Heffernan has said he hopes the Charities Regulatory Authority’s decision to close its enquiries into the charity will restore the public’s faith in the Saoirse Foundation.
Sparked by concerns about the charity received in 2015, the Charities Regulator this week told The Kerryman that it had now closed its enquiries following ‘significant actions by the charity trustees to enhance governance arrangements’. It added that it was also ‘satisfied’ that assurances had been provided in relation to the ongoing management and control of the charity and that confirmations had been received with regard to the closure of matters under the remit of other enforcement bodies.
Speaking at the end of what he labelled a ‘stressful’ period, Mr Heffernan said he never doubted that the charity would earn a favourable outcome, and added that all the charity could do over the last two years was keep going to help others.
“This has been tough, but a lot of charities have found it tough of late. When faced with something like this, you have a choice: you can cry, or you can keep going to help children, and I chose to keep going.”
The Saoirse Foundation is named after Keel-based Tony and Mary Heffernan’s daughter Saoirse, who passed away in early 2011 at the age of five after a battle with Batten disease, a rare inherited disorder of the nervous system. Their son, Liam, also suffered from Batten disease, and died almost three years ago, just shy of his sixth birthday.
It was approved as a registered charity in March 2010, and the foundation’s three main projects are children’s ambulance service BUMBLEance; planned children’s respite centre Liam’s Lodge, and Batten Disease support programme Bee For Battens.
The foundation was plunged into controversy in May 2015 following the shock resignations of four directors who raised a number of concerns, citing governance issues.
Part of the ex-directors’ concerns was that a February 2015 agreement to undertake a governance review had not been followed up at the time of their departure but Mr Heffernan said that the charity engaged Deloitte to carry out that review later that year.
“We had agreed to a governance review before the directors resigned, but I never agreed to an audit without a financial cap or a time frame. I wasn’t going to sign a blank cheque,” Mr Heffernan claimed this week.
“In November 2015, Deloitte provided us with a number of recommendations, and timelines for putting these recommendations into place. As a result, we aimed to become fully compliant with the Governance Code by November 2017, and we declare ourselves fully compliant in January of this year.
“Compliance is an active process, which is why we have an ongoing monitoring register. We have also publically signed up to the Statement of Guiding Principles for Fundraising, and we adopted the Charity Standard of Reporting Practice,” Mr Heffernan continued.
There had also been controversy over a delay in a second vehicle joining the BUMBLEance fleet. Mr and Mrs Heffernan were among those to approve its purchase in late 2014, but Mr Heffernan explained why this vehicle was not launched until early 2016.
“There was a delay, but this was down to the manufacturer’s heavy workload,” he said. “There was another delay after we were advised to leave registration of the vehicle until early 2016 because of the effects of depreciation but, since then, a further three BUMBLEances have hit the road and between them they’re providing free services nationally like critical care; inter-hospital transport; post and pre-surgery transport; and more besides. We’ll launch BUMBLEance VI in July, and our aim is to have a fleet of nine BUMBLEances, with some operating regionally with support from our core fleet.”
Mr Heffernan described the charity’s relationship with the Charities Regulator as ‘exceptionally good’ and said channels between the charity and the regulator had been very open over the past two years.
“We were notified by the Charities Regulator in recent weeks that it had closed its enquiries. We had supplied them with the documents from the Deloitte review, and we kept them informed at all stages as we implemented its recommendations,” he said.
“As a charity, we have taken significant actions on the back of the review. We would have liked to have seen the enquiries closed off quicker, but we respect the role of the Charities Regulator and fully support the work it does.
Today, the Saoirse Foundation’s Board of Directors consists of Chairperson and solicitor Liam Crowley; Company Secretary and solicitor Allan O’Connor; Treasurer and accountant Declan Crowley; entrepreneur Shirley Gallagher; businessman Don O’Leary; S&G Retail Products Director Scott Mackeown; Facebook Vice-President Rick Kelley; and management professional Raymond Sexton.
“We have an excellent, independent board of eight directors who have all the skills you need to run an excellent charity,” Mr Heffernan said.
“We hope the Charities Regulatory Authority’s decision to close its enquiries will restore the public’s faith in us; we’ve helped hundreds of children, and have supplied facilities that Liam and Saoirse never had.”