Mr. Francis Doherty:

I thank the Deputy. The payments he is referencing relate to money originally received by the Peter McVerry Trust from the Capuchin Day Centre through a multimillion donation agreement worth €4.7 million. Those funds were received by the organisation in October 2022. They were for specified or restricted use for the purchase of properties related to homeless services or housing for homeless individuals. While I was on leave, I was copied on an email from a member of the finance team at the Peter McVerry Trust, showing the level of funds available across all the different bank accounts. This came on the day after payroll had been met for the organisation. The organisation's payroll is €2.4 million. There was a monthly contribution to Revenue of €1.1 million. Before we paid a creditor, it cost €3.6 million just to run the organisation each month. That email showed that one of the bank accounts, which was for social housing projects, had been emptied of more than €2 million. It also showed the Capuchin donation account was effectively at zero. There might have been a few hundred euro in it.