A charity set up by Olive entrepreneur Brendan Kavanagh faces being struck off the register of companies as it has not filed accounts on time for six years.
The Shauna Kavanagh Foundation is named after Kavanagh’s daughter Shauna, who died at the age of 30 in October 2017 from cystic fibrosis (CF).
Kavanagh is chairman and a director of the charity with his son Dylan and fellow Olive director Marcus Hammond.
The charity raises funds to provide financial support for CF patients. Dylan Kavanagh won Bray Person of the Year in 2025 for his work as the charity’s chief executive.
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The charity was originally called the Olive Foundation when it was formed in 2010 with the aim of supporting research into addiction and supporting CF patients.
The original name came from Kavanagh’s Olive-branded safety and technology companies, but it changed name to the Shauna Kavanagh Foundation (SKF) in 2018.
Brendan Kavanagh is involved in a wide range of businesses through his Olive group, whose investments include Grinds 360, a company in which Brian O’Driscoll and Ireland rugby captain Caelan Doris are investors.
If the SKF company is struck off, it will lose its charitable status and its assets can be taken over by the State. Directors of a struck-off company can be subjected to fines.
Both the Charities Regulator and the Companies Registration Office (CRO) are in contact with the SKF over its failure to meet statutory deadlines to file annual returns and accounts.
The Charities Regulator register shows the SKF has not filed an annual return with it since 2018.
The charity did not file accounts between 2019 and 2023.
Since then, the SKF filed annual returns and accounts for the years up to the end of March 2022. Its 2023 and 2024 accounts are overdue. The CRO listed the company for strike off on February 2nd.
SKF’s last filed accounts show it had €33,315 cash in its bank account with €18,484 in net funds.
A statement from Olive said the charity was “fully committed” to meeting its statutory obligations.
“While historic filings were delayed, the organisation has taken the necessary steps to bring its compliance fully up to date,” it said.
“The remaining accounts will be filed ahead of the April deadline.”
The statement said its first “compliance gap” came when in 2020 “precisely when Covid-19 struck Ireland and disrupted normal operations”.
“The foundation has no employees and operates entirely on a voluntary basis; it had no institutional capacity to absorb that disruption,” it said.
The statement said John King, a solicitor and the charity’s company’s secretary, died in May 2021 from cancer.
“His unfortunate passing, in a small all-volunteer organisation with no paid staff and no backup, meant there was no one in place to drive the remediation process until professional auditors were formally engaged,” it said.
“We fully acknowledge the delays and have been working to correct them as the CRO shows. The remaining filings for 2023 and 2024 will be submitted ahead of the statutory deadline. The directors have engaged directly with the CRO and Charities Regulator, and the foundation will remain in good standing.”
It said €80,000 had been disbursed to CF patients since 2020 through a procedure supported by St Vincent’s University Hospital staff.
Last week Kavanagh and Ronan Murdock, the chief executive of Grinds 360, announced on social media that €57,000 would be donated to the Children’s Health Foundation.
Olive said this donation was not connected to the SKF.
“Grinds 360 has committed to donating €250,000 to the Children’s Health Foundation by December 2028. The SKF and Grinds 360 are legally and financially separate, with no shared funds or intercompany transfers,” it said.
The spokesman said the SKF “was built on the memory of a young woman whose spirit was defined by ordinary, practical human love and unconditional regard for people facing long-term illness. That remains its only purpose”.
The Charities Regulator said it took a proportionate, risk-based approach to compliance.
“All charities are required to submit an annual report to the Charities Regulator within 12 months of their financial year end,” it said.
“We engage with charities when they fail to submit their annual report on time.
“Many charities submit their outstanding annual report following this engagement and no further action is required.”
