Regulators are set to send a team of “monitoring experts” into Fr Peter McVerry’s housing charity as part of efforts to impose order over its chaotic affairs.
After three separate reports on rampant misgovernance in the organisation, the Republic’s largest charity for the homeless now faces another round of intrusive oversight from the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA).
The authority is a supervisor of not-for-profit groups such as the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT) that receive public funds to provide affordable housing. The experts will be told to provide monthly reports to the regulator.
The arrival in coming weeks of external officials to oversee the charity’s internal affairs is likely to prompt more questions about the future of its board.
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The trust received €164.3 million from the State in the five years to 2022 and €72.6 million in donations. Trust properties are said to be worth more than €160 million but there is uncertainty over the register of assets.
The board has remained in place despite serious questions being raised about its stewardship of money and assets in a series of damning reports by the authority, the Charities Regulator and the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG).
[ Serious questions raised about future of Peter McVerry TrustOpens in new window ]
A deepening crisis at the Peter McVerry Trust
There was no comment from the trust on the prospect of any board changes, or on the authority’s decision to appoint external experts.
The latest move comes two years after the charity hit financial crisis in 2023, necessitating a €15 million Government bailout that led to intense regulatory scrutiny of its affairs. A September report by the C&AG said the charity wants the State to fully fund its services for homeless people.
The board chairwoman is solicitor Deirdre-Ann Barr. The board secretary since 1983 is Fr McVerry, the Jesuit priest who established the charity that now provides housing and services to some 14,000 people.
In an attempt to ensure compliance with a plan to overhaul how the charity works, the authority will soon instruct experts to take up residence in the McVerry Trust office. The monitoring experts, likely to be from an accounting firm, will be directed to spend several months in the charity.
The authority has powers to “monitor and assess compliance” by housing bodies under its supervision.
“In this case the ‘monitoring experts’ will be appointed, on a contractual basis by AHBRA, to assess compliance with AHBRA’s standards as well as PMVT’s compliance with other statutory obligations,” said the regulator in reply to questions.
“They will specifically monitor and report to AHBRA on PMVT’s progress towards compliance, on a monthly basis.”
The regulator previously noted the trust was undertaking comprehensive corrective actions to address the deficiencies in its governance. “A vital part of this is PMVT’s co-operation with the monitoring expert,” it said.
In their December report on serious governance failings, authority inspectors found the trust listed 37 properties as “potential duplicate entries” in financial records and said 33 properties were “potentially omitted” from its books.
An October report for the Charities Regulator said the board became aware only in 2023 that the charity spent almost €1 million buying nine properties from its then auditor five years previously.
The C&AG’s September report said an interim chief of the charity was paid at a rate of €1,000 per day from the Department of Housing budget, before a permanent appointment in April.
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