Charity's crisis worsens as second board elected

The crisis at development agency Self Help International has deepened after dissident supporters elected their own directors in opposition to the existing board.

Self Help, which runs programmes in five African countries from headquarters in Hacketstown, Co Carlow, now has two sets of directors each claiming to be legally entitled to run the organisation.

Up to 50 staff and other supporters protested outside a Dublin hotel on Friday as the dissident group, which includes two former directors, gathered for what they termed an extraordinary general meeting of the charity. One of the group, Mick McCarthy, claimed yesterday that they were jostled and abused as they arrived and likened the scenes outside the meeting to "Ballymena at its worst".

Mr McCarthy said the group was forced by "a lot of shouting and roaring" to abandon its attempt to hold the meeting in a hired room. It moved elsewhere and proceeded to elect seven "directors" and appoint an acting chairman, businessman and hotelier Jarlath Sweeney.

Self Help spokesman George Jacob disputed this description of events, but agreed "words were exchanged" between the dissident group and supporters "anxious to know what was going on". This occurred after Mr McCarthy's group failed to hold a planned meeting with staff.

Mr Jacob said the egm had no legal standing as it had not been called by the directors of the charity. "Self Help continues with its day-to-day work despite the distractions of a group who bizarrely claim to have control over its assets and administration. As an examination of Companies Office records shows, these people are not directors of Self Help and therefore have no standing under law."

Mr Sweeney yesterday wrote to the agency's 12 Irish staff informing them of the election of the new directors. He said he had also written to the chief executive, Hilary McDonagh, asking her to co-operate with the new board, and said meetings had been arranged with Irish Aid and the Irish Farmers' Association, a major supporter.

Self Help staff are due to meet officials of Irish Aid today to agree funding for its programmes next year. Last year, Self Help got €2.4 million from the State.

The controversy has already forced the agency to cancel church-gate collections and at least one fundraiser has postponed a charity run.

While the row was originally about costs, Self Help's spending of 5 per cent of its budget on administration and 14 per cent on fundraising appears to be in line with other agencies. "It's not about costs completely; we accept that charities have to have some costs," said Mr Sweeney.

"We're also concerned with the lack of growth in fundraising and the failure of the former directors to keep up with the boom in the Irish economy."