‘Governance issues linger at some charities’
The Charities Regulator’s annual report for 2025 shows a significant increase in the number of concerns about charities raised with it last year.
The 681 concerns represented an increase of 38% compared with 2024 – though the watchdog said that more than 80 were linked to issues that were not within its remit.
The report also shows that the regulator opened statutory investigations into four charities and imposed sanctions on a fifth during the year.
It also removed 20 charities from Register of Charities for failing to file annual reports. A further two charities were prosecuted for failing to submit their annual report.
Governance standards
Concerns about governance standards continued to be the most common type of issue raised with the regulator, accounting for almost 40% of total concerns last year.
According to the 2025 report, the governance concerns that were raised included instances of:
- Dominant behaviour where an individual in a key role was reported to have exercised excessive control over the charity’s governance and operations,
- Charity trustees not being provided with information, such as detailed financial report, from the charity’s executive management when requested, and
- Charity trustees not overseeing the running of their charity adequately.
The other most frequently reported concerns related to unregistered organisations holding themselves out as a charity (24%), followed by concerns about financial control and transparency (22%).
Pattern
Charities Regulator chief executive Madeleine Delaney said that the body was not unduly concerned by the number of concerns raised last year, as these could fluctuate from year to year.
“What is of concern, however, is the continued pattern of governance-related issues.
“It suggests that some trustees are not fully in control of their charities or are unsure about how to manage them effectively and make good decisions in the best interests of the organisation,” she stated.
Older charities
"We tend to see this most among older charities that were ‘deemed’ to be registered when the Charities Regulator was established in 2016, rather than charities that have gone through our formal registration process in the years since,” Delaney added.
During 2025 there were 212 new charities registered with the Charities Regulator. This brings to 11,466 the number of charities in Ireland at the end of 2025.
In addition, 170 charities were deregistered during the year.