Enable Ireland, which provides services for people with physical disabilities, has been experiencing financial difficulties and is engaged in cutbacks, The Irish Times has learned.
Three senior management staff have left under a voluntary redundancy package while four other members of staff have been made redundant. The staff departures from Enable Ireland's two companies in recent months include a managing director, a company secretary and a company accountant.
A spokeswoman for Enable Ireland said many departures were not related to the restructuring taking place.
The three senior staff had recently taken on the roles of regional managers, which were senior to the directors of services who run Enable Ireland's 11 centres around the State. The centres offer therapy, assessment and educational services.
The board agreed on a restructuring programme late last year when Enable Ireland's deficit was at €1.8 million. The organisation believes that figure will have fallen to €700,000 by the end of this year.
As part of the restructuring, the charity's centres are being asked to make cutbacks where possible. It is understood that the cutbacks may even stretch to the withdrawal of a hot meal service for children at Enable Ireland's Sandymount school in Dublin.
This provision costs about €80,000 a year and the funds may be redirected to other services.
A spokeswoman for Enable Ireland said the organisation had experienced difficulties but it was hoped that the redundancies were now at an end. "It has been a difficult time for the organisation. There's no doubt about that," she said.
The spokeswoman could not confirm that hot meals would be withdrawn from Sandymount but said painful decisions on spending would have to be made in the coming months.
Enable Ireland receives more than 80 per cent of its funding from the health boards and fundraises for the rest. It received an operational fund of €16.5 million in 2001 in grants and donations but spent €17.6 million on expenses such as clinics and therapy.
Its spokeswoman said the financial difficulties had arisen because the health board funding for managerial and administrative support services had not kept pace with inflation in recent times.
Its Retail and Fundraising company runs 18 shops - soon to be 19 - around the State and they account for the majority of funds raised.
The Retail and Fundraising company's 2001 accounts showed that €6.96 million was generated in fundraising but €5.07 million was spent on fundraising and publicity, leaving €1.89 million.
The Enable Ireland spokeswoman said there was a lot of expense in establishing shops and fundraising schemes but this would eventually pay off. "But it's something that we always try to improve on."
She could not say how much of the money raised eventually went to disability services, because it was commercially sensitive information. "But I can tell you that you wouldn't find any charity shop with a better ratio than ours."
Enable Ireland's other company (simply called Enable Ireland) recorded an increase in clinic and therapy expenses from €7.9 million to €11.5 million in 2001. Wages/salaries/pensions accounted for most of this increase.
The public did not like to hear that some funds raised were being spent on administration, but the funds could not be raised without having professional structures in place, she said.
Donors are told that all funds raised return to that region but concern had been expressed in the past that the funds were not returning to the region.
The Enable Ireland spokeswoman said there had been administrative delays in the past but those problems had been addressed. Funds raised in a region now returned to that region within two or three months of the event, she said.
She said Enable Ireland would like to see a greater regulation of charities in this State.
