Cork Penny Dinners: No financial irregularities at charity

A major review of one of the country’s oldest charities, Cork Penny Dinners, has found no evidence of financial irregularities, the Irish Examiner has learned.

But the charity has been told it needs to address several “significant matters” and implement a raft of new internal controls, systems and processes to ensure it fully complies with new charity regulations.

The recommendations are contained in a review of the charity’s operations conducted by business consultants PWC.

It was ordered by solicitor Gerald Kean following his appointment as a trustee of the charity late last year.

He was due to discuss the review with the other trustees last night, but he declined to comment in detail on the recommendations ahead of the meeting.

But he said: “I intend to move swiftly to ensure all the recommendations are implemented as quickly as possible.”

Cork Penny Dinners has links to Quaker-run soup kitchens dating from the Famine in the 1840s.

It serves over 1,000 meals per week from its tiny premises on Little Hanover St, compared to around 150 a week two years ago.

Mr Kean was one of five new trustees appointed to the charity in November, including volunteer coordinator Catriona Twomey, Gary Heslin, Donella Casey, journalist Sarah Horgan, and Jim Urquhart, who has now resigned as chairman of the charity committee.