Failures by Irish Red Cross Tipperary Branch over a number of years "a serious governance issue for the IRC" according to internal report

Before getting into the main purpose of this article readers should know that there was an extensive debate on the Irish Red Cross in Dail Eireann (Ireland’s national parliament) on 15th December 2010. It involved the Minister for Defence, Tony Killeen and the Defence Spokespersons from the two main opposition parties, David Stanton, Fine Gael and Brian O’Shea, Labour, both of who will likely be in government following the general election early next year. One notable development from the debate is that a clear signal has been given by the International Federation of Red Cross in Geneva that they now want a greater involvement in the Irish Red Cross reform process. This is to be welcomed. It would appear the International Red Cross has become increasingly concerned and the recent report into the Tipperary bank account will only serve to heighten those concerns. Weaknesses in the internal report into the Tipperary bank account, especially the fact that Noel Wardick (former Head of International until his sacking in Nov 2010), Carmel Dunne (former Secretary General until 2007), Jennifer Bulbulia (Board member who resigned in 2009 because IRC refused to investigate Tipperary bank account) and David Andrews (former Chairman between 1999 and 2009) were not interviewed as part of the investigation. The link to the debate
is:

http://debates.oireachtas.ie/dail/2010/12/15/00011.asp

In addition to the oral debate involving the above three senior politicians numerous others had put down written questions on the Irish Red Cross which were replied in writing by the Minister (all available on the Oireachtas Debates website, 15th December 2010). The Minister unfortunately gave his standard 'non-answers' to these questions. The following are the politicians who had questions down for answer while the last two (7 and 8) made reference to Noel Wardick's dismissal in the Seanad (Senate, Upper House of Irish Parliament) during debates on Whistleblowing legislation:

1. Ciaran Lynch, Labour
2. Liz Mc Manus, Labour
3. Joe Costello, Labour
4. Brian O' Shea, Labour
5. Jim O' Keefe, Fine Gael
6. Kathleen Lynch, Labour
7. Senator David Norris, Independent
8. Senator Ronan Mullen, Independent

The purpose of this article is to formally respond to the Irish Red Cross internal investigation report into the Tipperary Branch:

The Irish Red Cross has now carried out an internal investigation into its Tipperary Branch following relentless pressure from the media, Dail Eireann (Ireland’s national parliament) and this Blog. For over two and a half years the Irish Red Cross steadfastly refused to investigate the discovery of an undeclared bank account within the Tipperary Branch containing €162,000, collected from the general public for victims of the 2004 Asian Tsunami. In the end, however, the Society had no option but to investigate following a barrage of continual and ever louder criticism. Irish Red Cross refused to carry out an independent investigation and instead opted for an internal one carried out by three members of its current governance structures. Despite serious weaknesses and fundamental flaws the report contains some damning findings not least of which is the total failure of certain officers of the Irish Red Cross Tipperary Branch, including Mr. Tony Lawlor, current organisational Vice Chairman, to adhere to Irish Red Cross financial and accounting rules and procedures. The full Irish Red Cross internal investigation report can be found on-line at:

http://www.redcross.ie/corporate_site/latest_news/publications/2010_publications

Below is this Blog’s formal response to that report:

A response to the Irish Red Cross Internal Investigation Report into the Tsunami Tipperary Bank Account

The Irish Red Cross has appointed an independent accounting firm to investigate how €162,000 of donations to victims of the Asian Tsunami went untouched for over three years in a Tipperary bank account-saying it has “nothing to hide”-5th September 2010, Sunday Independent

The Irish Red Cross, which has been dogged in recent months by high turnover of senior staff, allegations of improper governance, financial mismanagement and operating in a “toxic” culture, has abandoned its independent inquiry into how €162,000 in donations languished in a Tipperary bank account controlled by a former acting Chairman (Tony Lawlor) for three years-10th October 2010, Sunday Independent

This trawl (of Bank of Ireland accounts in the name of IRC) led to the uncovering of 49 unreported accounts amounting to €214,000 of which the Tipperary account of €162,960 was the most significant. Also of concern was that the IRC HQ did not receive any of the required returns from the Tipperary branch in 2005 and 2006 while the 2007 returns were not submitted until November 2008 even then they were incomplete i.e no bank statements or reconciliation. This is a clear breach of IRC rules and should have resulted in the branch being issued with a final warning, and if matters remained unresolved being closed down. A further concern was that when the 2007 return was submitted by the Tipperary Branch there was no mention of the Tsunami account, the existence of which was formally discovered by the IRC HQ in April 2008 when the Bank of Ireland report on all accounts held in the name of the IRC was examined in IRC HQ-Internal Irish Red Cross report, December 2010

Mr. Tony Lawlor remains Chairperson of the Tipperary Branch and Vice Chairman of the Irish Red Cross nationally.

Purpose

This blog has had the opportunity to read and review the internal Irish Red Cross report into the Tsunami Tipperary Bank Account and feels it is necessary and in the public interest to formally respond on record to correct a number of worrying and serious inaccuracies as well as omissions.

A number of the report’s findings are, however, a welcome and highly uncharacteristic admission of deep rooted failings and inadequacies. The release of a press statement openly admitting these failings is unprecedented in the Irish Red Cross which is normally characterised by secrecy, deceit, lack of transparency and an entrenched reluctance to communicate openly. So despite significant shortcomings in the internal report, a number of the findings are important and help shed light on a highly dysfunctional organisation. The report’s authors should be commended for some very strong statements made in the report and the new Irish Red Cross Chairman is to be acknowledged for making the report available to the media and general public.

It is noted that the investigation was an internal one and not independent. Much criticism has been levied at the Irish Red Cross over its decision to cancel a previously announced independent investigation and instead opt for an internal one. The result of this decision is obvious. The report is seriously compromised in a number of aspects but most importantly it fails to allocate blame to those blatantly and obviously responsible for failing to declare the Tipperary Bank account to head office. If those responsible for their unacceptable actions are not held to account and seen to be held to account then the value of the report will be greatly diminished. This blog would take the view that the findings of the report warrant the immediate resignation, from all positions within the Irish Red Cross, of the Tipperary Branch officers involved.

This formal response will go through the Internal Report section by section and respond where necessary. As follows:

Introduction

The report says “Interviews were conducted with Declan O’ Sullivan, Anna Marie O’ Carroll, Tony Lawlor, Eileen Keane, Des Kavanagh, Ted Noonan, John Roycroft and Bernadette Lawlor Lennon”.

The fact that the team of investigators failed to interview Noel Wardick, former Head of the International Department, means the report is fundamentally compromised as by any standard he must be considered a key participant. From reading the report and the numerous inaccuracies it is obvious that Noel Wardick’s input was not included and as a result the investigation team have misunderstood a number of important aspects of the Irish Red Cross and how decisions were and are taken. Did the investigation team have access to critically important correspondence issued over the years by Noel Wardick? No investigation could have been completed properly or accurately without access and review of these files.

The internal investigators also failed to interview Carmel Dunne, the Irish Red Cross Secretary General until mid 2007. The internal investigators failed to interview Jennifer Bulbulia, Central Council member and Honorary Secretary during the Tsunami who resigned in mid 2009, citing one of the reasons the failure by the organisation to investigate the Tipperary bank account. In addition the internal investigators failed to interview David Andrews, Chairman of the Irish Red Cross from 1999 to 2009. The decision not to interview Andrews, Dunne, Bulbulia and Wardick is inexplicable. The report is severely compromised as a result.

It is also critically important to note that the three internal investigators and authors of the internal report faced serious conflicts of interest because of the following:

1. Liam O’Dwyer and Michael Halligan were members of Central Council and the Irish Red Cross Finance Working Group at the time of the Tsunami in 2005.

2. Liam O’Dwyer, Michael Halligan and Angela Coen are all currently members of Irish Red Cross governance structures.

3. Angela Coen has at least one family member on the Irish Red Cross Training Working Group. Tony Lawlor (one of the subjects of the investigation) is also a member of the Training Working Group.

Findings

The report says “...a decision was made by the IRC Executive Committee that the money collected by the IRC (for the Tsunami) would be spent over a period of five years”

The decision to develop a five year plan and spend the money over a five year period was taken by the former Head of the International Department, Noel Wardick. This decision was approved by the then Secretary General. This blog is not aware whether or not this decision was ever discussed with the Executive Committee.

Following the recruitment of Noel Wardick to Irish Red Cross in October 2005 it was obvious from the outset that the Irish Red Cross was struggling to manage and get to grips with the scale of the donations it had received, €32 million, and how and what to spend it on. This was no different to every other aid organisation across the globe who were responding to the tsunami. When Noel Wardick first joined there was massive pressure coming via the Executive ‘to spend and to spend quickly’. At the level of the Executive there was a fundamental dearth of knowledge and understanding around operating and implementing direct country operations overseas and the complexities and challenges of working in such environments. The Secretary General at the time, Carmel Dunne, was particularly supportive during these initial months and as such much progress was made. The priority in those first months after Wardick’s recruitment was to build the capacity of the International Department in Dublin and equally importantly the capacity of IRC overseas teams to ensure the Society could guarantee the effective use of the public’s money. What is most disappointing about the Irish Red Cross internal report is its attempts to link the weaknesses and lack of capacity in the head office finance department during the years 2005-2010 with the unacceptable failure by officers of the Tipperary Branch to declare and submit the €162,000 collected for the Tsunami. The weaknesses in the head office finance department had absolutely nothing to do with the Tipperary Bank Account situation. IRC has very clear procedures and policies in this regard and these procedures were in existence and known to all branches in 2005. All blame for the undeclared Tipperary Bank account rests 100% with those officers in Tipperary who knew about the money and failed to declare it. No blame for this can be attributed to any staff member as it was not their responsibility to report branch accounts. Equally importantly if staff did not know of the existence of accounts because the information was withheld from them they could not be expected to do anything about it. On this critical aspect, blaming the finance department, the investigators have erred significantly. It was very obvious, however, from October 2005 that the Irish Red Cross had a fundamental lack of capacity within its head office finance department. This point was made abundantly clear over a five year period and requests for change and improvement were constantly made. Many improvements have been made to the finance department but it is still significantly short of capacity and experience. The decisions not to recruit additional finance staff to support a massive international disaster response operation and a growing complexity in the organisation's activities was a serious mistake and one presumably made by the Executive Committee. They must be held accountable for this grave error in judgement. Nevertheless it must again be pointed out that even if the Irish Red Cross had sufficient capacity in its head office finance department the Tipperary bank account situation would still have arisen simply because if head office does not know bank accounts exist then they cannot do anything about them. The internal investigators have made a big error in trying to explain that the failure by Tipperary branch officers to declare the Tsunami bank account was because of a weak and short staffed finance department in Dublin. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes the finance department was weak and short staffed but this in no way contributed to or can explain the failure by Tipperary branch officers to carry out their duties and declare and submit the money to Dublin until it was discovered during a secret internal audit nearly four years later.It is important that the internal investigators are made aware of the very robust financial accounting procedures and systems implemented by the International Department in all its overseas operations. For example in Indonesia and Sri Lanka the International Department recruited expatriate finance controllers to oversee all financial and administrative matters relating to each country. The respective finance controllers then established a finance and administration department within the country operation which was then staffed with numerous skilled national staff. As an example the Irish Red Cross national finance officer in Sri Lanka (who reported to the expat Finance Controller) was a qualified accountant. The Irish Red Cross finance department in Indonesia was bigger and more resourced than the finance department in Dublin. The reason the International Department had a highly skilled and properly resourced finance and administration department in all its overseas operations is because the Executive Committee was not involved in such decision making. In 2005 the Irish Red Cross finance department had no Finance manual or guidelines for its overseas operations and little apparent interest in developing one. During 2008/09 the International Department unilaterally decided, with Secretary General approval, to take on the development of a finance policy in this regard and a comprehensive one was researched and finalised.

The refusal to properly staff the head office finance department and other head office departments was done consciously by members of the Executive Committee, in the view of this Blog, to ensure they maintained total and micro control over the workings of the Society. None of these weaknesses can, however, be used to explain away the failure by the Tipperary branch officers to carry out their duties and declare the Tsunami bank account.

The internal report states “The concerns identified by both the auditors and the consultants were compounded by human resource issues arising in the IRC HQ. On top of which the sudden departure of the then Secretary General in mid 2007 left a leadership gap in the organisation. In any consideration of the matters which later emerged this context is important since it shows a picture of an organisation operating in an outdated manner with poor systems and under resourced and demotivated staff”

The last sentence in the quote above is accurate and to be welcomed. It recognises that the Irish Red Cross was and still is a highly dysfunctional organisation controlled by a handful of people on the Executive Committee. Ms Dunne’s ‘sudden departure’ was all to do with her desire to reform the organisation and smash the power bases of the ruling elite on Executive. For this she was rewarded with a ‘sudden departure’. Once again while the internal investigators have identified a range of human resource and staff morale problems none of these were responsible in any shape or form for the failure of Tipperary branch officers to declare the tsunami bank account to head office as they were fully obliged to do. It is very disconcerting that the internal investigators seem to be attempting to put the decision not to declare the Tipperary account down to a range of other problems that existed within the Irish Red Cross at the time. These problems did exist and they were serious but they in no way explain the Tipperary back account situation. It is very simple. The Tipperary Branch has an appalling record over a number of years of not reporting its accounts to head office. It is the considered view of this Blog that the Tipperary branch has been afforded protection against sanction because the Chairman of the Tipperary Branch also serves as the Vice Chairman of the national Executive Committee. There is an unacceptable conflict of interest here. The people who are clearly breaking the organisation’s rules and procedures are also the same people who not only determine those rules and procedures but are responsible for issuing sanctions if and where those rules and procedures are broken. It is because of this unacceptable conflict of interest and concentration of power that certain individuals have always felt themselves above the ‘rules of the organisation’. It is the view of the Blog that branch officers should not be permitted to sit on the national Executive Committee. Just as County Councillors must resign when elected to the Dail branch officers should also resign when elected to Executive.

One of the primary reasons the Tipperary situation arose is because certain individuals felt they could operate with impunity. Unfortunately they did operate with impunity and continue to operate with impunity. They believed they were untouchable and accountable to no-one. The Tipperary saga has nothing to do with short staffing or lack of resources in headquarters. It happened because certain people flagrantly breached the organisation’s rules and were never held to account. The reason they were not held accountable is because they were the very same people who decide who is accountable and who is not.

The internal report says “The account remained open with the monies collected intact until the 23rd of September 2008 when the monies now totalling €162,960 were transferred to the IRC HQ Tsunami account”.

It is important to note that the above money was not ‘willingly’ transferred to Dublin in the truest sense of that word. The Tipperary Branch had no option but to transfer the money because a secret internal audit had discovered it and effectively the Branch was ‘forced’ to return the money.

The internal report says “There is no evidence of any movements in this account during 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 apart from the full transfer to the IRC and a €1,000 and a separately a €100 withdrawal and subsequent the return of same due to a misunderstanding between the bank and the Branch”

When exactly did the return of the above monies take place? Did the return of these monies take place AFTER the bank account was discovered by head office? This is not addressed in the internal report and it is a serious failing not to do so. The report also fails to address what it means by a “misunderstanding between the bank and the branch”. What exactly is the nature of this misunderstanding? Was any official of the Tipperary bank in question interviewed to ascertain their opinion on this misunderstanding? The fact of the matter is €1,000 and €100 was withdrawn from the Tsunami account. No money should ever have been withdrawn from this account as no-one apart from the International Department, with the authority of the Secretary General (and approval of Executive), has the authority to decide how public appeal money is spent. Certainly no branch officer has permission to make such decisions. Why this money was taken out of this bank account and what was it spent on before being returned is not addressed in the report. In the absence of any explanations by the investigation team serious questions must arise over this matter and further investigation is clearly required.

The internal report says “In this context it was decided at Branch level, to leave the money in the designated deposit account and transfer it as and when IRC HQ needed it”.

This statement is entirely reflective of the extreme arrogance and attitude of certain members involved in this case and their belief that they operate with impunity. First and foremost no-one in the International Department had any knowledge whatsoever of the existence of €162,000 in a Tipperary bank account designated for Tsunami projects. The former Head of the International Department at the time, Noel Wardick, was first informed by the then Secretary General, John Roycroft, by way of a phone call, sometime in September/October 2008, over six months after the account was first discovered in April 2008. As such the International Department would never have been in a position to ask the Tipperary branch to release the money ‘when it was needed’ as the International Department never knew of its existence. Secondly no branch officer has any authority whatsoever to retain monies collected for an overseas appeal. This point must be reiterated very strongly. No Irish Red Cross branch has any authority to retain monies collected for an overseas appeal. Every single Irish Red Cross branch is obligated to send every penny of money collected for an overseas appeal to Irish Red Cross HQ in Dublin as soon as is reasonably possible after the money is collected. As Head of the International Department it was then Noel Wardick’s responsibility, in conjunction with the Secretary General, to decide on how monies collected for an overseas would be spent and over what time frames. Individual branches have no hand, act or part in such decisions. It is absolutely NOT a matter for any branch officer to ‘decide’ when they will release money to the International Department. It is simply not within their authority to make such decisions. Decisions to do so therefore represent a clear abuse of power.

The internal report stated “Both the Branch Chairperson and the PRO indicated that they had no concerns about this since the account was an IRC designated deposit account not for use locally. They did acknowledge that for the money to remain untransferred for 3.5 was excessive...”

Did the internal investigators ask the Tipperary branch officers involved how long they would have kept the Tsunami money undeclared had the account not been discovered by the secret internal audit and what would have happened to the money had they not been forced to return the money to HQ? It is entirely a matter of conjecture of course as to how long the Tipperary branch would have kept this account secret but any sense given by the internal report that the money was willingly returned after 3.5 years is incorrect. The Branch had no option but to transfer the money to Dublin.

The failure of the Tipperary branch to transfer the money to Dublin was problematic for the International Department as its plans and priorities are determined based on the budget available to it. In late 2008 the International Department was already well on its way towards planning its exit strategies from direct operations in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. The announcement that the Department suddenly had an additional €162,000 meant it had to readjust all its budgets and expenditure plans. Branch officers in Tipperary including the national Vice Chairman would NOT have any detailed understanding or knowledge of overseas day to day operations and/or priorities and are not professionally qualified in the area of development and humanitarian programming. It is for this reason they have no input into day to day decision making on such matters. Their belief that they do is a prime example of their hubris.

In July 2010 the Tipperary Branch Chairman and national Vice Chairman, Tony Lawlor, did an interview with the Tipperary Nationalist newspaper where he stated categorically that the Tsunami Tipperary money had been spent. He also told the newspaper the money involved was €150,000. Upon reading this article Noel Wardick wrote a formal memo to the Acting Secretary General, Declan O’Sullivan, stating categorically that the money had NOT been spent and would not be spent until possibly late 2011 (this email was quoted liberally in the media following its leaking to the Sunday Times). The fact of the money being unspent has now been borne out in the internal report. The Wardick memo, according to the Sunday Times, also questioned why Mr. Lawlor was quoting a figure of €150,000 to the media when he knew full well the true figure was €162,000. There is no evidence from the internal report that the internal investigators raised this critical issue with Mr. Lawlor. Why is this and why did Mr. Lawlor give inaccurate information to the media? Within days of the Tipperary Nationalist interview the Irish Red Cross were forced to admit the amount involved was in fact €162,000 and that it had yet to be spent. This caused more damage to the reputation of the Irish Red Cross and no doubt confidence in the integrity of the Irish Red Cross was beginning to decline as a result of these conflicting statements and u-turns.

The internal report says “their explanation (Tipp branch) of the delay in the context of the five year plan for the expenditure of the monies is understandable....”

Had the internal investigators interviewed Carmel Dunne, former Secretary General until 2007 and Noel Wardick, former Head of International until late 2010, the above statement would likely not have been included. Officers in the Tipperary branch flagrantly broke the rules and policies of the Irish Red Cross. They failed to report or transfer money which they had no entitlement to retain for nearly four years. The Chairman of the Tipperary Branch broke, over a number of years, the very rules he as national Vice Chairman is responsible for overseeing and implementing nationally. It is not a matter for branch officers to decide when overseas money will be spent. It is a matter for the Head of the International Department in conjunction with the Secretary General (with final endorsement by Executive although Executive has no role in day to day decisions on such matters). The Tipperary branch had no authority to do what they did and as such the comment that “it was understandable” has no validity. In fact such statements implicitly endorse the unacceptable practice of blatantly and knowingly breaching organisational policy and procedure.

The internal report stated “The fact that no returns were submitted to IRC HQ by Tipperary branch for 2005 and 2006 is in our view a more serious governance issue for the IRC HQ than the late transfer of the Tsunami monies. This is compounded in our view by the fact that the submitted 2007 late returns from Tipperary branch did not feature the Tsunami account”

The above statement is very welcome. It was widely known within the Irish Red Cross that the Tipperary branch was a repeat offender in breaching organisation finance policy regarding branch accounts and submissions to head office. The matter was continually swept under the carpet and not dealt with for one reason and one reason only. The Chairman of the Tipperary branch is also the Vice Chairman of the whole Society and would be acknowledged as the ‘person who runs and controls the Irish Red Cross’. Such critically important findings as stated above must be acted upon and those responsible held accountable. Without concerted action being done and being seen to be done statements such as above will be consigned to meaningless words on paper.

In referencing a press release issued by head office concerning the Tipperary bank account the internal report says “While the press release did not identify whose error it was it did implicate the Tipperary Branch by using the phrase the “account remained there untouched". The statement could have been worded differently acknowledging the error on both sides but the reviewers feel given the publicity involved it was not an unfair press release”.

It is encouraging to see the internal report state “it was not an unfair press release”. It is, however, worrying in the extreme that the internal report would also say “acknowledging the error on both sides”. This is classic ‘internal report’ writing at its best..... compromise to keep everybody happy particularly those who are powerful, do not blame any individual, blame systems and procedures not people and hold no-one to account. The simple matter of fact in relation to this case is that there is NO error on BOTH sides. There is error on ONE side and ONE side only. A number of Tipperary branch officers took ‘the law into their own hands’ so to speak, flagrantly breached organisational policy and procedure and failed to transfer money to IRC HQ that they had no entitlement to hold until they were caught following a secret internal audit. Other weaknesses within the head office finance department contributed in no shape or form to this unilateral act by certain Tipperary branch officers.

Recommendations

This Blog understands that Tony Lawlor was/is the Chairman of the Tipperary Branch and his sister was the Treasurer of the Tipperary Branch. The internal report does not clarify whether a brother and sister were both signatories on the Tipperary Tsunami bank account. All good organisational practice should have very explicit policies preventing any number of ‘conflict of interest’ situations arising. One such policy is to avoid ‘blood relation’ conflicts of interest. In non family businesses and voluntary organisations it would be standard protocol not to allow blood relations be bank/cheque signatories on the same accounts. Does the Irish Red Cross have policies in this regard and if so were they adhered to?

The internal report falls very short in another key area. It provides no commentary on the total failure of those in charge in 2008, when the undeclared account was discovered, to formally investigate and report on the matter. Central Council, the supreme governing authority of the Irish Red Cross, was not informed at the time. Most Central Council members and many Executive Committee members first became aware of the matter following media reports in late 2009 and then from updates on the Blog. One of the reasons Jennifer Bulbulia, former Central Council member and Honorary Secretary of the Society, resigned was the organisations’ failure to have the Tipperary bank account investigated. It seems the internal report has demurred entirely from allocating blame to all those responsible for this sorry saga, first and foremost those who committed the wrongs (Tipperary branch officers) and secondly those who failed to investigate them. As such the report's credibility is dramatically reduced.

There are, however, a number of welcome recommendations in the internal report which need to be robustly acted upon. One statement in the Recommendations section however must be challenged and its goes to the heart of the internal report. That is the attempt to link certain weaknesses in the IRC head office finance and administration department (which were solely caused by the Executive Committee’s failure to allow various Secretaries General resource it) to the actions of certain Tipperary branch officers. This link is at best a serious error of judgement on the part of the internal investigators and at worst an attempt to protect certain Tipperary branch officers. The Tipperary branch officers involved in the tsunami account acted unilaterally, without permission, of their own volition and in blatant breach of organisational procedure which they were fully aware of. They must be held accountable for this. Head office staff or any weaknesses in head office played no hand, act or part in the decision taken by Tipperary branch officers to intentionally withhold public money collected for an overseas appeal and to not declare its existence to IRC HQ. In failing to explicitly acknowledge this the internal report, which is strong in parts, has been substantially compromised. This, unfortunately, is the nature of internal reports. It is the Blog’s belief that these serious shortcomings would not have occurred had independent investigators carried out the review.

This formal response to IRC's internal report will conclude by saying that despite the very obvious deficiencies of the report it has highlighted numerous unacceptable practices that many of us have campaigned long and hard for change on. Some of us have even been fired for trying to highlight these. The recognition of these practices as wrong is very welcome and the internal investigators should be commended for that. Had the Blog not existed, however, and had the media not got behind the campaign for reform of the Irish Red Cross one thing can be certain. No investigation, whether internal or independent, would ever have taken place. The next step now is accountability. All eyes will be on the Irish Red Cross to see how it responds. Let’s hope it meets the challenge bravely and courageously. Failure to do so will bring more reputational damage and confirm that real and genuine reform is not nor has it ever been on the agenda.