Parents of children with autism across Ireland have taken to social media to request a detailed breakdown of how money donated to Irish Autism Action is allocated.
Questions over the Mullingar-based charity's spending were raised after its new CEO Brian Murnane admitted the number of members the IAA assists with Behavioural Outreach programmes has been reduced from 17 to just two.
A post written by mum Rhonda Dunne, detailing her concerns and frustrations regarding the charity, has been shared almost 400 times on Facebook by parents and other members of the autism community.
Ms Dunne would like to see more transparency when it comes to the charity's spending and salaries.
Many questions posted to the official
Facebook page of IAA relate to the Autism Action ID card, which is available to purchase on the website for a €20 per annum membership fee.
Gill O'Connor Lynch said she is still waiting for a response to an email she sent in November, 2015, while Lou Ui Vaughan asked: "Why are you helping so few families? How much was raised for your charity last year? Out of that money raised, how much did helping, each family cost? How much does your helpline cost to run?"
In response to what the organisation described as "quite a number of queries", CEO Brian Murnane said he is happy to meet with groups and individuals to discuss and clarify any matters raised.
In response to the questions posted, the following statement was released on the IAA Facebook page:
"Irish Autism Action continues to provide a range of support services including:
- Helpline - dealing with up to 200 enquiries per week from families.
- Behavioural outreach services
- Provision of training to teachers in mainstream schools, unfamiliar with autism (in Partnership with Early Childhood Ireland)
- Individual advocacy - on a wide range of issues
- National Advocacy - to guide and inform public policy in Health, Education and Social Protection.
- Provision of specific support to various groups.
- Management of Autism Friendly campaigns - including issuance of Autism ID Cards and associated training for staff - of a variety of corporate bodies - Dublin Airport Authority, Tayto Park, among others.
- all of which are supported through our fundraising work and the generosity of our donors.
We have had to reduce the number of people receiving one particular kind of support, Behavioural Outreach. This was the only area where we did receive state support, from the HSE. However, the funding we received had to be supplemented from our fundraised income in order to provide the service. It became clear to the Board of the charity that this situation could not continue so we informed the HSE and reduced the number of families we were supporting in this fashion from seventeen to two. We have since commenced discussions with the HSE regarding a revised financial model that would allow us to return to providing those supports more widely."
Brian Murnane
CEO, Irish Autism Action
Formed in 2001, Irish Autism Action's mission statement is "to create a more autism aware and friendly society which will in turn increase understanding and help the 276,000 people in Ireland living with autism."
Among its accomplishments,
the charity lists the establishment of 12 autism specific schools catering for needs of 350 children and the founding of an assessment and diagnostic centre that has assessed over 1000 children.
Mary Dowling spoke out in support of their work in this area:
The organisation also claims to provide an advocacy support service to an average 350 families per year and outreach support to up to 80 families per year, while helping 200 families per week to access entitlements, training, and autism therapy service.
Boyzone and
Coronation Street star Keith Duffy, whose daughter has autism, stepped down as patron of the charity last year, having raise more than €8m for the charity over 10 years.
Choosing a charity to support
According to the website
Goodcharity.ie, before you decide whether or not to support a charity, you should ask the following questions:
- What problem is the charity trying to solve?
- Does the charity’s approach to solving that problem make sense?
- What has the charity achieved to date?
- Is the charity signed up to any professional standards?
- Does the charity make information on its finances publicly available?
Have you used IAA services? Let us know on Twitter @HerFamilydotie. 
