The crisis-hit Peter McVerry Trust will appear before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and is “on track” to publish its long-delayed 2023 accounts next month and intends to be an “exemplar of good compliance”, chairman Tony O’Brien has said.
More than two years on from first revelations about serious financial mismanagement at one of the largest and then most respected housing and homelessness charities, Mr O’Brien is determined the trust will regain the confidence of the Government, funders and the public.
Since summer 2023 it has been subject to investigations by the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA), the Charities Regulator and the Comptroller and Auditor General. These found multiple failings in management, oversight and administration, lack of adequate financial controls, and breaches of numerous regulatory standards.
In November 2023, as crisis engulfed the charity and amid fears it could go under, the Government approved a rescue package of €15 million.
RM Block
Since then there has been the replacement of the board – all nine members were appointed this year – and changes at senior management.
Chief executive Niall Mulligan, former national secretary of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, was appointed in April 2024.
The trust’s repeated refusal to appear before the PAC and the Oireachtas housing committee, however, has caused anger among politicians. In June PAC members said the trust’s second refusal to appear to discuss its €15 million State bailout was “unacceptable”.
Speaking to The Irish Times on Friday, Mr O’Brien, who was appointed in May, said the trust was “getting close” to “publishing the 2023 accounts”. He was “reasonably confident” that would be “in October”.
Fundamental inaccuracies in the 2022 accounts – in such areas as the valuation of assets – has meant aspects of these sets of accounts need to be restated in the 2023 version.
“We have gone back to the basics, from the ground up and the information we supply now will be a restatement of what was said before but it won’t be saying the same thing ... What we will be saying is aspects of the 2022 accounts were not correct and we are restating those in a correct way in the 2023 accounts.
“This process of creating a new set of accounts from the ground up is very complex ... We will be publishing them and when we do we will be answering questions from journalists, the media, parliamentarians and we intend to be completely open about the process we have gone through to get to this stage,” he said.
[ Social housing built in era of Dublin slums to get new lease of lifeOpens in new window ]
On his decision not to go before the PAC in June, he says he was just 21 days in the post, but, more importantly, “without the 2023 accounts we wouldn’t be able to answer most of the questions they would have”.
“I have now written to the committee and indicated that once we have published those 2023 accounts we will happily go in with absolute candour and transparency.”
Within “a short matter of months after” the 2024 accounts will be published, he said.
“We won’t be fully compliant [across all management and governance regulations] any time soon,” he said, “but we are moving very strongly in the direction of compliance”.
Key areas include ensuring the fixed asset register is correct, that appropriate rent-collection policies are in place, that policies around financial management and key financial information are robust, and that the board and its governance are working to the highest standards.
The charity has “a lot more work to do” but is in a “much more stable” position, Mr O’Brien said.
“We are committed to being an exemplar of good compliance. We want to go from being at the back of the class to being in the front row.
Mr O’Brien was speaking to The Irish Times during its return visit to one of the trust’s more interesting housing developments: the restoration of one of Dublin’s oldest social housing projects.
The 20 new, one-bedroom apartments in the south inner-city, to be allocated to households affected by homelessness in the coming weeks, are housed within numbers 181-187 Townsend Street.
The block was built around 1909 by then Dublin Corporation as “healthy dwellings” for “the working classes”. They were among the first homes built by the city authorities, following a 1903 conference about housing for the city’s poor, held at the Mansion House.
The original 18 tiny flats, over retail units, were considered quite luxurious at the time with indoor plumbing and two to three rooms per dwelling. By the 21st century, with open fireplaces, lead piping, asbestos in the roof and narrow stairwells between floors they were deemed unsuitable and were de-tenanted by 2011.
The trust identified the building as one that could be “reclaimed” for housing and began work in January 2023.
When The Irish Times visited in March 2023, signals of past life included peeling wallpaper, lace curtains, an April 1990 copy of the Evening Herald, a tub of Brylcreem and kitchen utensils still in place.
Funded by the Government’s Capital Assistance Scheme, the project has cost just shy of €4 million.
The removal of four internal stairwells and ground floor retail units means the 20 new apartments – all fully insulated, with double-glaze windows and combi-boilers – are significantly larger than the original flats.
A new extension to the rear houses a communal staircase and lift.
Dominic Nolan, project supervisor with Bracegrade engineers, noted “challenges” refurbishing the century-old flats and “dealing with a lot of 1900s construction”.
Sagging floors had to be re-levelled and asbestos was removed.
The early 20th century brickwork, granite cills and chimney pots have been retained, ensuring the original building as seen from the street remains.
“There were a lot of unforeseen issues in combining the old building with the requirements of today,” said Mr Nolan. “You could say I have a love-hate relationship with the building. But yes, in fairness, we are very proud of it.”
Describing the project as “wonderful”, Mr O’Brien said the charity and its 800 staff experienced “pain” though the recent crises but “kept their heads down”, remaining “focused” on providing services to the “most vulnerable”.
