Irish Hospice Foundation ends funding relationship with Kingspan after Grenfell report

The Irish Hospice Foundation has ended its funding relationship with Kingspan in the wake of the official report into the Grenfell fire.

A spokeswoman for the charity confirmed the decision to The Irish Times on Friday, stating that a continued relationship would be “incompatible” with the organisation’s values.

A spokesman for Kingspan said that the company had been proud to support the charity.

“Kingspan has enormous respect for the Irish Hospice movement which we have been proud to support over the last 15 years. Doubtless many of our colleagues will continue to support it in a personal capacity and we wish the IHF the best in the important work that they do,” they said.

Kingspan was found to have “knowingly created a false market” for the insulation used on the facade of the Grenfell Tower in London, where 72 people were killed in 2017 in a fire, by falsely claiming it successfully passed tests to allow it to be generally used on high-rise buildings more than 18m in height generally.

The long-awaited report, written by inquiry chair Sir Martin Moore-Bick and running to 1,700 pages, was published earlier this month. It highlighted the failures of government, building materials companies, contractors, fire safety experts and local council officials that led to the blaze seven years ago.

Kingspan’s Kooktherm K15 insulation board was used on about 5 per cent of the plastic foam insulation layer of external cladding of the block, unknown to the company, during a refurbishment of the London tower that was completed in 2016.

The final inquiry report found that Kingspan and Celotex each misled the construction market with claims their respective K15 and RS5000 insulation boards could be generally used on high-rise buildings.

“As Kingspan knew, K15 could not honestly be sold as suitable for use in the external walls of buildings over 18m in height generally, but that is what it had succeeded in doing for many years,” the report said.

The inquiry also uncovered emails from Kingspan UK staff dating back to 2009 that joked about the fact that fire safety tests on K15 were flawed.

The Irish Hospice Foundation has long received funding from Kingspan, including through a yearly sponsored cycle, from which it has raised more than €2 million for the foundation since it started in 2009. More than €400,000 of this was donated directly by Kingspan.

“Following a review of the report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry phase two, the board of Irish Hospice Foundation has determined that a continued funding relationship with Kingspan is incompatible with our organisation’s values and not in keeping with IHF’s ethical fundraising policy,” the charity told The Irish Times.

“As a result we have decided to end our partnership,” the statement continued.

“Irish Hospice Foundation extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and loved ones of those who lost their lives in the Grenfell tragedy.”

It’s the latest in a string of separations brought about in response to the report and from pressure from Grenfell survivors’ groups.

Earlier this month, Irish golfer Shane Lowry ended his partnership with the construction firm. The move was welcomed by survivors’ group Grenfell United, which called on other sports professionals to “follow suit”.

* This article was updated on Friday evening to include a comment from Kingspan