Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree with others that the decision of all three organisations to refuse to attend is deeply disappointing. In fact, it is worse than that because it is preventing us from doing our jobs. The Peter McVerry Trust provides exceptionally important services. It has a significant number of staff who make an enormous difference to people's live on a night-by-night basis and almost 1,000 people access its services. Given that the controversy surrounding the trust has been going on for months, I think this committee took a very responsible approach. We did not seek to make a party political issue of this. We sought consensus. We agreed that until the stability of the service was secured and a financial support package was in place we would not bring representatives of the trust before the committee. A package was agreed at Cabinet at the end of last year so it is now entirely appropriate for the Peter McVerry Trust, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, DRHE, and the Department to come in and discuss those matters. Of course, we did not expect them to be able to tell us about or respond to questions in relation to two regulators' reports that have not concluded and the results of which have not been published. There is, however, so much information in the public domain that it would have been a valuable opportunity for the trust and the statutory side to set out, insofar as they can, what happened and how it happened. Given that the financial support package is in the region of €15 million across a range of tranches, this committee and the wider public have a right to know the nature of that financial support package. If it secures the continuation of the services, I have no issue with it but I would like to know the conditions that are attached.

I endorse the Cathaoirleach's decision to write back and urge them to come before the committee. We need them to come in as a matter of urgency. Speaking for many of us, we would be disappointed if the response to the Chair's most recent correspondence is the same as the last. Clearly, when the reports of the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority and the Charities Regulator are complete and published, there will be issues that this committee, and perhaps also the Committee of Public Accounts, will have to look at. On homelessness, this committee has always taken a non-partisan and collegiate approach to ensure the right thing is done by those people in most acute need of housing. In that regard, the people who have refused to come before us are preventing us from doing our jobs, which is a serious thing. I therefore hope that if they are paying attention to this session, they will reconsider and we will have them in as soon as possible.