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John O’Shea to leave GOAL after High Court action is settled

O’Shea has announced his retirement from the charity, after an attempt by its board to remove him is settled out of court.

Updated, 18:16

THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of the humanitarian charity GOAL, John O’Shea, is to step down from his position next month, after the High Court was today told that his attempts to stop the charity’s board from removing him had been settled.

In a statement this evening O’Shea, 68, said he had decided to step down as CEO, a post he had held since founding the charity himself in 1977.

“I wish to express my profound thanks to many thousands of individuals who have helped me in my efforts to alleviate the suffering of some of the poorest people on the planet,” O’Shea said.

“Helping the downtrodden, the deprived and the destitute was an honour and a privilege.”

GOAL said it hoped to “explore opportunities to collaborate with John for the betterment of the organisation given John’s vast experience and expertise”, and thanked O’Shea for his “astonishing work and contribution to GOAL”.

“Since 1977 GOAL has delivered over $1bn in aid and emergency relief programmes to the poorest of poor in over 50 countries, saving tens of thousands of lives and improving countless others,” it said.

Trade and development minister Joe Costello paid tribute to the “exceptional humanitarian work and the leadership” O’Shea had shown, saying GOAL had made a “significant contribution to emergency humanitarian action and longer term development efforts”.

Details of the settlement reached between the sides have not been disclosed.

The Irish Times said the High Court had been informed this afternoon that the dispute between O’Shea and GOAL’s board had been settled following “lengthy discussion” between lawyers for both sides.

O’Shea had secured a temporary order against his removal earlier this month, rejecting complaints of “institutionalised bullying” within the organisation, calling them “false and concocted”.

Additional reporting by Emer McLysaght

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23 Comments
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    Mute Andy Doyle
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    Jul 26th 2012, 6:28 PM

    Sad that his tenure ended this way, but there seems to be a culture of non corporate compliance & lack of proper accountability within Goal. For example, John O’Shea refused to publish his salary details. The company relies on public donations and that the public have a right to know how there money is being spent.

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    Mute Jim bob dee
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    Jul 26th 2012, 6:39 PM

    We all know what sorted out this dispute, money, and probably lots of it.

    163
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    Mute Tensing Norgay
    Favourite Tensing Norgay
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    Jul 27th 2012, 11:22 AM

    Great business to be in that Charity lark, they are falling over each other in Africa enshrining the many of the people into culture of poverty. They would be better off lobby Politicians across Europe to help Africa economically which is the only meaningful solution. Ah well the important thing is that John the professional giver gets “paid” , of course this will be partially funded by tax payer , wonder how much he will donate to Charity , maybe his daughter will tell us , apparently she wants to take over the family business , I mean Charity now !

    20
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    Mute Fussy Galore
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    Jul 26th 2012, 6:58 PM

    I wonder if his daughter Lisa O’Shea will get his job ? Also, she should stop promoting her name in the radio ads for Goal – it’s a waste of valuable money & promotes her own career.

    130
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    Mute chucky.arla
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    Jul 26th 2012, 6:51 PM

    Too many chiefs not enough charity!!!

    If only there was a way to cut out the middleman when giving to charity

    126
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    Mute Niall
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    Jul 26th 2012, 7:17 PM

    No doubting the great work he did and he will always have a great legacy, but I’d love to see how much he earned since 1977.

    110
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    Mute Martin Mac
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    Jul 26th 2012, 8:20 PM

    A lot of money, lived the high life while being an arrogant rude man on top of it.

    119
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    Mute Popsicle Pete
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    Jul 26th 2012, 9:05 PM

    He earned silly amounts of money, what was it like €400,000 a year or something? How is that a charity, it’s more like a scam to me

    99
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    Mute Sean Slevin
    Favourite Sean Slevin
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    Jul 27th 2012, 12:40 AM

    Popsicle.
    Where did you get this 400k a year figure from? Can you back it up or is it something you hope is true so you can discredit the man.

    12
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    Mute Brian Horton
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    Jul 26th 2012, 10:11 PM

    Well Neil. Are you in the charity business yourself?

    56
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    Mute rayven
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    Jul 26th 2012, 7:34 PM

    Everybody’s money is nobody’s money so just like the civil service they get to pay themselves what they think they are worth probably along with unvouched expenses

    45
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    Mute Joey Dempsey
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    Jul 27th 2012, 12:23 AM

    Retirement my arse, no doubt a tidy little financial arrangement for this chap who always bothered me with his approach, in your face attitude. Perhaps the truth will surface one day. Nice pension to look forward to given the outrageous salary he was on and before the bleeding hearts have a moan, it was the public who donated to the destitute as Mr O Shea described Goals target audience.

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    Mute keith palmer
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    Jul 26th 2012, 6:22 PM

    A score draw!

    29
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    Mute Dhakina's Sword
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    Jul 27th 2012, 12:57 AM

    There is clearly an urgent need for transparency, regarding senior executives pay within all charities. The publics trust is being severely threatened, by repeated stories of grossly overpaid charity workers. If I’m not mistaken, wasn’t it recently reported that one of Rehab’s senior executives was earning close to a quarter of a million?. How could this be?. What justification could there possibly be for plundering a charity of its financial resources to this unmelodic tune?. I don’t smell a rat as such. It’s much more like the smell of a new car, or, the scent of expensive Egyptian cotton sheets, or maybe the smell of first class air travel, or luxurious hotels, or fine dining, or the taste of fine wine?. I wouldn’t know, because I am unfamiliar with these scents. My guess is, that I am smelling the increasingly familiar stench of hypocracy and usury. I should add that in no way do I mean my comments to be directed at the personality mentioned in the above article. I do however, suspect that there are some within these organisations that are attracted to overpaid positions, not because of charitable concern, but rather because of personal greed. And possibly also because of a serious and callous personality disorder.

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    Mute Neil Dowling
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    Jul 26th 2012, 10:04 PM

    Well Popsicle ,he gave to the poor unlike the last couple of taoisigh who took from the poor and still are and for what 250 k per annum . He deserved it he set it up

    19
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    Mute fizi_water
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    Jul 27th 2012, 7:08 AM

    I know you shouldn’t judge book by its cover, but he doesn’t even look like a charity person to me lol. By the way, does anybody know what is the deal with those charity people stopping you for a chat in the city centre? Sometimes they are more pushy than street merchandisers in Egypt. I know its their job so I’m never rude to them, but its seriously annoying at times.

    13
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    Mute Sean Slevin
    Favourite Sean Slevin
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    Jul 27th 2012, 11:49 AM

    And what does a charitable person look like then?

    There is alot of speculation here about this man living the high life.
    Can we have some of the statements backed up by facts. That seems reasonable doesn’t it?

    6
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    Mute Dhakina's Sword
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    Jul 27th 2012, 3:04 AM

    You may well be right Gerard. I remember during the early eighties, a friend of mine was selling raffle tickets, for a pound, of which, she got twenty per cent and the rest went to the owner of the charity. During that period, he was only obliged to hand over one per cent of his “earnings”.to the charity. That meant that seventy nine per cent went into his pocket. The charity got one per cent. The sellers got twenty per cent. Because of the charitable status, tax was only paid on the one per cent. Negligible. To refer back to your point, if a charity was modestly successful and earned a million, then two hundred grand would not have to be accounted for. This is the rich and ripe plucking ground for the socially adept psychopath. They live for that twenty per cent that does not have to be accounted for. While doing so, they will destroy everybody and everything that gets in their way, without remorse, without conscience.

    11
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    Mute Gerard
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    Jul 27th 2012, 1:58 AM

    Please somebody correct me if I’m wrong but I think I once heard that once you are running a legal charity you are only obliged to hand over 80% for charity causes, the rest you get to keep. Like I said, please correct me if I’m wrong

    9
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    Mute Brian O'Neill
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    Jul 27th 2012, 11:59 AM

    This article claims he earned 98k a year:
    http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/how-much-does-giving-really-cost-2161786.html

    Any registered charity should be forced to have full disclosure of all their accounts. All salaries, expenses etc should be public.

    8
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    Mute Daniel O'Leary
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    Jul 27th 2012, 6:38 AM

    Read half this article before I realised it wasn’t John O’ Shea the footballer, how disappointed I was :)

    6
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    Mute Sean Slevin
    Favourite Sean Slevin
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    Jul 27th 2012, 11:51 AM

    Or perhaps if he wasn’t paying himself as much as we thought we would be very disappointed as we wouldn’t be able to point score.
    Facts please.

    5
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    Mute Lucille Ball
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    Jul 26th 2012, 9:19 PM

    What caused all the deformities in children around the Chernobyl area then William?..

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