{"id":457582,"date":"2026-04-28T08:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/457582\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T08:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T08:46:15","slug":"hse-launches-investigation-into-autism-charity-after-alleged-transfer-of-e1-5m-in-funds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/457582\/","title":{"rendered":"HSE launches investigation into autism charity after alleged transfer of \u20ac1.5m in funds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The HSE has launched a major review into the funding of an Irish autism charity amid allegations it transferred more than \u20ac1.5m in taxpayer funds to its UK counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>HSE CEO Anne O\u2019Connor has confirmed that the agency has launched a review of all financial, contractual, and governance records related to Autism Initiatives Ireland (AII).<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Documents seen by the Irish Examiner\u00a0outline that concerns were raised in 2019 about the alleged transfer of funds from Ireland to the UK, with \u20ac1,522,788 said to be moved outside the State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In a briefing note provided to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Ms O\u2019Connor confirms the HSE did not provide any approval to AII to transfer the funds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">She adds that all funding provided to the charity is only to be used for providing disability services within Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe HSE has no evidence at this time that services were contracted, delivered, or invoiced by UK-based entities in connection with the transfers referenced by the committee,\u201d Ms O\u2019Connor wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms O\u2019Connor said the HSE currently does not have any records indicating it was aware of funds being transferred out of the country by AII, but the review examine if it received a \u201cretrospective notification\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Governance and compliance concerns at the charity were first flagged internally within the HSE in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">PAC chairman John Brady said the HSE review underlines the \u201cseriousness of the allegations\u201d, describing it as \u201cabsolutely shocking\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt is astounding that these transfers appear to have taken place, with absolutely no approval sought or granted, and no appropriate oversight in place,\u201d Mr Brady said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr Brady said the review needed to be carried out as a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt is also essential that we establish that similar arrangements do not exist in any other organisations, to ensure public funding is being used appropriately and transparently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Autism Initiatives was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listbullet\">\n<li>Tadgh McNally is a Political Reporter for Irish Examiner.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HSE has launched a major review into the funding of an Irish autism charity amid allegations it&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[11357,79,18,60,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-457582","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-autism","9":"tag-business","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-hse","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116481463727411235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}