Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 30 September 2025

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage

Peter McVerry Trust: Discussion

2:00 am

Mr. Tony O'Brien:

Regarding the accounts, new auditors were appointed a little less than a year ago. I became chair in May, at which point some of the work had begun. I will be completely honest; it became apparent that we needed to go back to first principles regarding the asset register of the organisation, that is to say the properties and so on. While that was already identified as an area of concern in the regulatory reports, the lengths that we have had to go to have been extraordinary. I used to be the Accounting Officer for the HSE and this has been by far the most difficult audit I have ever been involved in, which is saying something. We have had to go right back to original source documentation in order to develop an asset register that can be the basis of a comprehensive set of audited accounts. That has taken-----