BBN MEDIA

TRANSCRIPT

Station: RTE ONE
Programme: PRIMETIME
Date: 08.11.05
Time: 10 mins
Ref: PWC
Presenter: To most, taxpayers' money going to the disability services would seem like money well spent. However, it seems things aren’t that simple. Primetime has exclusively obtained a report of the Controller and Auditor General which reveals a shocking lack of accountability and transparency in the many organisations which are providing services to the disabled. Some of these organisations are getting hundreds of millions in Government money but nobody knows how they’re spending it. Barry O’Kelly has this report.
Catherine Finneran: A beautiful young boy. His needs aren’t extraordinary and we’re an ordinary family but extraordinary demands have been placed on us now.
Brian Cowan, Minister for Finance: I explained that some €2800 million overall would be provided in 2005 specifically for people with disabilities. This represented an increase of €290 million or 11% on the 2004 figure.
Reporter: Almost of one third of this money, more than €900 million went to the so-called non-profit organisations which provide a range of services for disabled people. This funding from the taxpayer typically represents 95% of the core income of these groups. In return, they provide the bulk of the residential and respite care for disabled people in Ireland but where exactly is all this money going?
Catherine Finneran: It hasn’t made any difference in my life and that of the life of my son either. He’s out of a service now so it hasn’t filtered down to the people who really need the services.
Reporter: Keith Finneran is 18. At the moment there isn’t a suitable place for Keith’s needs so his Mum Catherine cares for him full time at their home.
Dr Mark Harrold, Clinical Psychologist: I’m not sure that the Department of Health are getting value for money in many instances and certainly what we know for sure is that despite the huge increase in funding that’s out there or that has happened by the Government, we’re not seeing a commensurate increase in the quality of service because we still have people with no service, we still have people in inappropriate services and we still have families suffering intolerable stress with their vulnerable children.
Reporter: So is the taxpayer getting value for money from the increasingly corporate style disability care organisations? Is anybody keeping an eye on how these vast sums of money are being spent? The answer to that question is that we simply don’t know because incredibly many of these organisations funded by the taxpayer are failing to provide the State with audited financial accounts. Primetime can reveal that one such organisation did not provide audited accounts for five years and was given €288 million in State funding. These are among the extraordinary findings of a new report due to be sent to the Government next week by the State watchdog, the Controller and Auditor General. A draft copy of the report, obtained by Primetime, confirms the worst suspicions of some people in the disability sector. It raises some very worrying questions about value for money and transparency in an area that has received billions in State funding in recent years. The Auditor General found that even when the financial accounts were filed, the State failed to check the level of funding against reported income in thirty-seven of the forty-three groups he examined. One disability service examined by the State watchdog had seen its level of funding increase six fold over a ten-year period while the number of people it cared for had fallen dramatically. In 1994, the Cheshire Home in Ballina looked after forty-five people with disabilities. It received €170,000 in State funding at today’s prices. In 2004 Cheshire was looking after twelve people and getting €960,000 in State funding. We put these findings to the Chief Executive of Cheshire, Mark Blake-Knox.
Mark Blake-Knox: At that time when we took it over, there were two, three, four people sharing bedrooms, probably only the size for one, the staff were being paid very little for what they were doing, considerably less than other people doing similar work in other Cheshire Homes, considerably less than people doing similar work in the town of Ballina so we had a responsibility to two things, one was to remove the quality of the service for the people living there which we have done by reducing the numbers.
Reporter: This here right it’s a report by the C&AG, it’s an extract from it, if you just have a look there. So if you’ve got low dependency people being catered there and the cost per person is €80,000 per year, is that not high?
Mark Blake-Knox: I think it’s again, it’s quite shallow to say they’re low dependency. I don’t know if he’s seen them. They mightn’t need, some people because I know one person who lives there who has substantial physical needs, there are other who don’t but some people have support needs but I think one of the things also is that we have been working with the Health Service Executive to try and look at the costs over the last six to twelve months.
Seamus Greene, National Parents & Siblings Alliance: I think the important issue is this, that service providers are funded totally by the State so it is everybody’s money, it’s taxpayers’ money etc and in that sense it isn’t unreasonable to expect to know exactly what’s happening with that money.
Reporter: The Auditor General’s investigation has uncovered a shocking lack of documentation in the former health board offices which dealt with disability grants. He cited an absence of completed application forms, audited accounts, tax clearance certificate, confirmation of charitable status and evidence of grant approval itself.
Dr Mark Harrold: Well I think the whole idea of voluntary for instance is a misnomer because organisations which are set up now which as so-called voluntary are virtually 100% funded by the State. They are not charities; they are funded by the State but often times the consumers of these services seem to think that they’re accepting grace and favour which is simply not the case.
Reporter: The key place to track funding should be the audited accounts of disability service organisations however, the Auditor General established that the former health boards have not received audited accounts from 25% of the organisations he looked at. The report disclosed that these bodies have received approximately €100 million in that year. The Auditor General noted that the submission of audited financial statements was a condition of funding.
Deirdre Carroll, NAMHI: In Ireland we’re sort of unique I think than other EU countries that particularly for example in the learning disability sector, intellectual disability where I would be familiar with, you would have 80% of services provided to people with disabilities by the voluntary or not for profit sector as some people like to be called now and they provide the service on behalf of the State who will pay them funding to do so. Now it is the HSE who would have the responsibility of entering into arrangements with service providers to provide services for people with disabilities.
Reporter: These arrangements are supposed to be governed by service agreements. However, the Auditor General found that no such agreements had operated last year with groups which had received more than €200 million from the taxpayer and where such service agreements were in place, the Auditor General found many cases where service agreements were not signed until substantially after the commencement of services and funding.
Catherine Finneran: One of my days in town in the summertime, I noticed somebody collecting for people with disabilities. Out of curiosity I approached that person and I said to him, I said, can you tell me what you do with the funds that you raise? He said for people with disabilities and I said well I’ve got a son with special needs, how can I access this? He said to me you go to your post office he said and you can get it so I said no, I’m sorry you don’t get there and because of circumstances I didn’t pursue the question, with a regret now because I feel people with disabilities is exploited in some ways.
Reporter: Six weeks ago Catherine took her son Keith out of a service because she felt it wasn’t appropriate.
Catherine Finneran: The practical realities are an immense… I don’t think I could quantify them for you right now because our lives have completely changed. It’s been difficult for us though as a family because I’ve had to alter my working arrangements and that of his dad as well too to facilitate Keith’s needs. We love to have Keith at home but we’d also love him to able to access a service and to have a life independently of us and I really don’t think that’s a big deal to ask today.
Reporter: In one of the most striking examples of poor financial accountability, the Auditor General revealed that in the case of one significant voluntary body, no audited financial statements had been received without any alteration to funding or any other sanction. This body have received €288 million from the taxpayer over five years.
Deirdre Carroll NAMHI: We have to provide audited accounts every year and we’ve now become a limited company and we have had reams of paper telling me about all my financial obligations so I would be surprised if services haven’t done that and I would hope that they will be doing that.
Reporter: The Auditor General has pointed out that the charity sector is currently unregulated and attention needs to be given to establishing financial reporting norms. Meanwhile the Government says that the charities legislation will not be published until Spring 2006.
John Perry TD, Fine Gael: I think it’s quite disappointing that within Government buildings, within the Taoiseach’s Office since 1999 promised legislation was to bring in to regulate charities and NGOs, to date nothing has happened and I think that it has resulted in, I believe, in non-regulated services which has impacted on the effectiveness and the amount of money that’s allocated and the delivery of services.
Reporter: This story of a shambolic system of funding involving billions of euro of taxpayers’ money will make grim reading for a Government already feeling the heat over value for money scandals. It confirms what many in the disability sector have suspected for a long time.
Dr Mark Harrold: When you have a mix of vulnerable citizens and their families, you have marvellous frontline workers who are prepared to work for less than or around minimum wage then you have vast sums of money which go unaccounted for, I have to say that that is a recipe for difficulties.
Presenter: That report was from Barry O’Kelly.


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