THE DAFFODIL Day committee for the Wexford town area will not be organising an annual collection this year due to the recent revelations that have come to light over salaries of people working with the Irish Cancer Society.

2016 will be the first time in 19 years that the volunteers will not take to the streets to raise money for the organisation. The event, over the course of two decades has raised in the region of €300,000 for the cancer charity but the committee took the decision to cease the event after the launch of Daffodil Day earlier this year.

Dorothy O’Connor said: “There is a lot of organisation involved in the event and when you see where the money is going then it is very disheartening.”

It was recently revealed that the CEO of the Irish Cancer Society was earning €145,000 per year with a company car and pension; another member earned €100,000 while nine staff members earn over €70,000. The payroll cost in 2014 was €7.5 million.

Ms. O’Connor said: “We didn’t know how much these people were being paid until after the launch when the news broke. I rang around to our members and volunteers to discuss the matter. We didn’t take this decision lightly but we felt that if we were to go ahead with the fundraiser this year, it would be seen as a justification of what these people were being paid.”

The organisers, she said, felt that they could not ask the people of Wexford to donate their hard-earned money to something that goes to pay such high wages and not to the cause that it was meant for.

She added that they would like to apologise to anyone going through cancer, as they feel they are letting them down by their decisions, but feel they have to stand by their principles and hope that people will take notice and rectify the high salaries and redirect the money to the cause for which it was collected.

“We felt that we had to take a stand and now was the time to do it after the recent revelations.”

She added that if there were others who wished to hold events for Daffodil Day they could contact the Irish Cancer Society to register their interest.