Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 20 November 2025
Public Accounts Committee
Exceptional Funding of the Peter McVerry Trust: Discussion
2:00 am
Mr. Francis Doherty:
You could say that. The most obvious one is the Charities Regulator because it has done it in the past for other organisations. I was CEO and five weeks in the role, I wrote to the Charities Regulator and said we have financial pressures that are outside anything the organisation has experienced in 39 years. I gave it a plan to say that I need to generate €15.1 million in six months. I got an email back that said, "Thanks for that. I know you will keep in touch." There were multiple times over the course of my time there and the months after where a clean sweep of the organisation's board would have resulted in a much improved and quicker process. I want the organisation to succeed. There are incredibly good people there. Peter has done amazing work. There is a massive crisis in homelessness in this country. The Peter McVerry Trust has always led on the solutions. It was hamstrung by the fact that the people who were there missed it, then went into self-protection mode, further damaged the organisation and the people there now who are trying to make sense of it have been restricted in solving the issues. That is to the detriment to the organisation and its service users.
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