Truth needed now more than ever at the Irish Red Cross

Since December 2009 this Blog has campaigned for reform of the Irish Red Cross. For many years the organisation has been afflicted with a seemingly never ending series of internal crises, most of which involve governance, resource and funding issues as well as industrial relations problems. For twenty years successive generations of staff, volunteers and some courageous board members have sought and called for change. Such calls were never appreciated. The responses were at best wholly inadequate, at worst threatening and intimidating. Over the years some of the brightest and best have left the organisation, often exasperated and in despair. Despite, however, the endemic problems that beset the Irish Red Cross, the vast majority of volunteers and staff remain passionately committed to the ideals, objectives and principles of the Red Cross, as is this Blog.

Back in December this Blog was set up primarily to facilitate internal debate and discussion, in a confidential and ‘free from fear’ manner. This has largely been achieved and most staff and many volunteers and board members throughout the country were aware of the blog’s existence and regularly read the articles. The posting of comments was virtually non-existent initially but once the first brave soul wrote one more and more began to follow. As any reader of the blog will know many of the comments have been very supportive of the blog, the concerns it raises and its calls for urgent and immediate reform. Like any good and open debating or discussion forum some of the comments held different different views and were very negative towards the blog and a number of people obviously felt it an inappropriate way to address the issues. Some even questioned whether the issues raised even existed at all. These views were and are always welcome. The purpose of the Blog was and is to generate debate within the organisation, something that heretofore was sadly lacking and most definitely not encouraged. The Blog has been successful in this regard.

The Irish Red Cross has been subjected to a torrid time in the national media in recent weeks, as it has in regular waves over the last twenty years. The recent wave is not because of the Blog, there are millions of Blogs out there that the media never cover. The reason for the constant media coverage is because there is a very real and a very serious story to be told, one that must be heard. Once again, as has happened many times over the last two decades, it is being told in the media and Irish Red Cross staff, volunteers, board members, donors, supporters, government departments all need to know what is happening as all these groups have stakes in the health and welfare of the organisation. The story of the Irish Red Cross, as reported in the media, has not been created by this Blog nor has it been created by the imaginative minds of newspaper editors. The Irish Red Cross has created this story itself through its own actions and behaviour. We, as a national Red Cross society, are the sole creators of all our deep rooted problems and sadly we have consistently failed to address and resolve them. Hence, once again, the Irish Red Cross finds itself embroiled in the middle of a severe internal crisis, one that is increasingly being played out in the full glare of the national media. If we do not immediately address the fundamental issues of radical governance reform and the current leadership vacuum the crisis will worsen and the glare of the media will intensify.

While there are no overnight solutions to the problems that beset the Irish Red Cross the following should take place within weeks:

1. The Minister to appoint a highly qualified, skilled, reputable, experienced, determined and energetic chairperson with a very clear mandate to fundamentally reform the Irish Red Cross. The appointment has been outstanding for eight months. This Blog welcomes Minister Killeen’s statement as reported in the Sunday Independent on 22nd August 2010 that an appointment is expected in September. We can only hope its early September.

2. The new Chairperson needs to initiate an investigation into the ‘undeclared’ Tipperary Bank account where €162,000 raised for victims of the Asian Tsunami, sat for over three years until it was discovered during a secret internal audit of Irish Red Cross branch bank accounts. This matter alone has generated much media coverage and in and of itself has greatly damaged the reputation and credibility of the Irish Red Cross. People responsible for what happened must be held accountable for their actions.

3. The new Chairperson should be tasked with overseeing, in an open and transparent manner along with a professional recruiting firm, the recruitment of a permanent Secretary General. The current caretaking scenario needs to conclude forthwith. The Sunday Independent reported on 22nd August that the post of Secretary General would be advertised in September. This is a very welcome development if true.

4. Following the appointment of a new Chairperson and the recruitment of a new Secretary General a special General Assembly of all Irish Red Cross members, volunteers and staff should be convened. The last general assembly took place in 2005. The two scheduled for 2007 and 2009 simply never took place. Such closure within any organisation is very unhealthy and the Irish Red Cross is proof of the damaging consequences. The calling of a special General Assembly of all members under the new Chairperson and Secretary General would allow for a new start, a rebirth and a revitalisation of the whole national society.

5. This Blog has previously called for a full scale independent investigation into the affairs and operations of the Irish Red Cross. Fine Gael, in an official statement issued in February 2010, called for an Independent Investigation. Irish Red Cross staff went on RTE in 1999 and called for an Independent Investigation. Calls for an Independent Investigation have been continual for over a decade now. If the organisation is to move forward, eventually recover and leave its past behind then an open, all encompassing independent investigation must be the starting point.

6. The Irish Red Cross governance reform proposals submitted to the government in early 2010 should be withdrawn and the process started afresh. The current proposals will not reform the organisation. Instead they will maintain the status quo, which is their intention disguised as reform. In any revised governance reform process consultations and discussions should be all inclusive and open, meaning volunteers, staff, central council members, executive committee members and relevant external partners should be engaged and consulted.

Any reform process undertaken by the Irish Red Cross must have at its core the determination to stamp out fear from within the society. Fear has been the greatest and most effective weapon used to dominate and control the Irish Red Cross for the last twenty years. Fear is what stops us being who we are, achieving what we are capable of and forces us, against our will, to tolerate unacceptable behaviour and treatment. Frances Moore Lappe summed it up well ‘I’ve grown certain that the root of all fear is that we’ve been forced to deny who we are’.

I, the blog author, believe Frances Moore Lappe, is correct. No longer will I fear. No longer will I deny who I am.

Noel Wardick
Head of International Department
Irish Red Cross

The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is-Winston Churchill