£43,500 compensation to unnamed ISPCC director for 'loss of office'

The controversy which convulsed the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) in 1999 cost the charity £163,608, according to accounts filed recently.

The amount includes a "compensation for loss of office" of £43,500 paid to an unnamed director. Mr Cian O'Tighearnaigh is the only director of the charity recorded in the Companies Registration Office during 1999 as having resigned. He was the charity's chief executive and resigned that year.

An internal investigation was initiated within the ISPCC in 1999 after the Sunday Business Post reported that the charity's street-collectors had not been paid their full commissions.

A Garda investigation was launched during which Mr O'Tighearnaigh was arrested but never charged. He was on extended leave up to the time of his resignation in August 1999.

It is understood he now runs an executive hackney service.

A review of the charity's finances by Deloitte & Touche formed part of the organisation's response to the controversy and it said it was going to implement recommended changes.

Yesterday Mr Paul Gilligan, the chief executive of the ISPCC, he would not discuss who received the £43,5000 payment.

"We have a policy of transparency in relation to monies raised but individuals are entitled to their privacy," he said. He confirmed that the £163,608 related to costs incurred as a result of the controversy which followed the newspaper article and that the £43,500 was included in the figure. The £163,608 is described as an exceptional item in the accounts lodged in the Companies Registration Office.

The accounts show that the ISPCC raised voluntary income of £1.8 million in 1999 compared to £2.1 million in 1998. Total income however was down just £126,000. Expenditure in 1999 was £2.6 million, with £1.6 million going on services to children, £649,000 going on development and promotion, and £338,000 on administration.