Fun run group breaks funding rules
Parkrun Ireland has not declared €800k of taxpayer-funded cash in its accounts
THE Parkrun Ireland movement has been breaking Government grant rules on public funding for almost a decade, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
It has emerged that none of the €800,000 in HSE funds provided to Parkrun Ireland since 2015 has ever been declared in the organisation’s accounts, as is legally required.
And the Health Service Executive (HSE) has allowed the situation to continue, despite internal concerns being raised five years ago.
Under Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) rules, all grants from the HSE must be accounted for in a completely transparent manner.
This means that they must be fully declared and detailed in the accounts of Parkrun Ireland.
Despite Parkrun’s failure to do this, the HSE continued to provide funding for each new year
‘I’ll be honest. I don’t know all of the details ’
without question.
Confidential records provided to the MoS in a protected disclosure by whistleblower Shane Corr indicate that, as part of a 2018 review, Department of Health officials asked the HSE why Parkrun Ireland was not a registered charity.
This weekend, the HSE confirmed that it had ‘engaged with Parkrun Ireland over 2018, in relation to their self-declared status as a not-for-profit’.
However, the State health agency said Parkrun Ireland had decided ‘not to progress to register with the Charities Regulatory Authority’.
Although it is not compulsory to set a company up as a registered charity, most entities that are in receipt of taxpayer-funded HSE grants would typically do so.
The HSE did not respond to questions about its failure to ensure that the Government grant rules were complied with in the case of Parkrun Ireland.
This weekend, the DPER said that its rules concerning grants from the HSE were aimed at ensuring ‘transparency, accountability and value for money’.
The department said that the rules ‘apply to all grant funding originating from the Exchequer… and to any/all onward movements of that funding.’
A spokesperson told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘The objective is to ensure that all Exchequer funds, regardless of the method of distribution, are accounted for and properly managed.’
DPER added that the ultimate responsibility for compliance, in this instance, rests with both the HSE and Parkrun Ireland. But neither Parkrun Ireland, nor the HSE, have ever fulfilled these particular requirements. The international CEO of Parkrun Global, Russ Jefferys, this weekend admitted he was ‘not sure’ if the HSE funding has been ‘inappropriately not declared’, but promised: ‘If it is, that’s something we’ll look at.’
Mr Jefferys told the MoS: ‘I’ll be completely honest with you, I don’t know all of the details here, but I am quite prepared to do whatever it takes. If we are not doing something right, I want to make sure that we are.’
‘My understanding is that in order for us to receive a grant from the HSE in any new year, they need to be satisfied that we are using the funds, as stated and agreed, and are reporting on them appropriately.
‘Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to receive grants on an ongoing basis. It is my understanding that on that basis we are fulfilling our obligations. ‘Certainly no one has given us cause to believe that we are doing anything inappropriate when it comes to the grant funding.’
The personalities behind Parkrun Ireland, Matt and Ruth Shields, have been billing Parkrun Ireland Ltd for consultancy fees worth hundreds of thousands of euro. These consultancy fees are being paid to a private company in the North called Shield’s Mres Services Ltd, which is owned by Mrs Shields.
The financial transparency of this firm is negligible because it is availing of a legal loophole in UK company law that allows micro firms to keep most of their accounting details secret.
However, the accounts of Parkrun Ireland confirm that, between 2014 and 2021, €534,000 in ‘consultancy fees’ was paid to Mr and Mrs Shields via their Northern Irish firm.
A non-profit company, Parkrun Ireland Ltd is one of numerous entities operating under the banner of UK-based charity, Parkrun Global.
Conceived in 2004 by founder, Paul Sinton-Hewitt CBE, Parkrun has mushroomed from a single event involving 13 participants in London’s Bushy Park to a global phenomenon.
Parkrun now oversees free, volunteerled events in 23 countries in which tens of thousands of runners partake every week.
The movement took off in Ireland thanks to Lisburn-based Matt and Ruth Shields, who founded Parkrun Ireland Ltd as a non-profit company in 2012.
More than a hundred 5k runs now take place each weekend throughout the country, in addition to 30 junior 2k runs.
Some 35 GP practices have also come on board, prescribing the events for both mental and physical health. More than 300,000 people have registered with Parkrun in Ireland, more than any other country per capita.
The movement has also been supported by commercial sponsors such as the VHI and Lidl, as well as Athletes Ireland and the Irish Sports Council.
Celebrities and political figures have also contributed. In 2015 then Health
€534,000 was paid to Mr and Mrs Shields’s firm