Joanna Byrne (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Mr. Doyle.

I want to come back to the issue of the Peter McVerry Trust. I did not comment on this earlier because I was hoping to get into it at this stage of the meeting. I agree completely with my colleagues. It is totally unacceptable that the trust refused to come before the committee today. It almost went bankrupt last summer. From what I can see, the core issue was the use of capital funding to subsidise day-to-day running costs and the trust has been very vocal in that regard. However, running up a liability of €20 million is outrageous. While we have questions to pose to the trust, it is not here today. I have not doubt that the committee will actively pursue the trust. We have all been united in our calls for representatives of the trust to come in here. The Department and the Government also have questions to answer, especially in the way deficit funding, competitive tendering and departmental oversight created the context in which the Peter McVerry Trust could behave in the way it did. It is my understanding that issues regarding the deficit-funding model were highlighted by other homeless service providers to the Department, going back as far as 2020. Where was the departmental oversight as the Peter McVerry Trust was racking up the liabilities that almost bankrupted it? It is pretty evident that there was no oversight to the extent that was required.