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:

Yes. When I met the former CEO in late May, the explanation varied. On an earlier draft application for funding to the Capuchin Day Centre, he had included a reference to funding for New Directions and buildings that New Directions had use of or wanted to acquire for the use of its services. That was the initial explanation. My reaction to that was that I did not really accept that this was a valid reason for the organisation to then forgo that money because we did not have the agreement as an organisation to do what he was saying. As the conversation progressed, my recollection is that he advised that, in actual fact, the money was being made available in order that that organisation would have funds to pay his salary when he moved there.