Peter McVerry Trust may be 'compelled' to appear before Oireachtas housing committee

The Peter McVerry Trust, along with Department of Housing officials and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive, declined an invitation to appear for questioning by the housing committee over concerns about financial issues at the charity.

The Oireachtas housing committee may use its powers to compel the Peter McVerry Trust to appear before it if they decline another invitation, the charity has been warned.

In an unusual move, cross-party TDs condemned the trust, Department of Housing officials, and the Dublin Region Homeless Executive at a public session of the committee on Tuesday.

All three parties had been invited to appear for questioning by the housing committee over concerns about financial issues at the charity but all three declined the invitation, citing it would be inappropriate to do so given there are two investigations underway.

Before Christmas, the Government agreed to give a bailout worth €15m to the charity on the condition of reform in the organisation. The charity had said it was experiencing cash flow pressures. The Charities Regulator and the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority both appointed inspectors to carry out separate investigations into financial and governance matters at the trust.

Members of the housing committee rounded on the three parties, with chairman and Green Party TD Steven Matthews saying that TDs and senators know how to conduct themselves and know what they can and can not ask.

Fine Gael senator John Cummins said that the Peter McVerry Trust had previously requested to come before the committee but said the issue is that at the time, it wanted to come in on its own terms but now is not willing to answer questions when it is experiencing difficulties, which he described as “unacceptable”.

“This is an organisation that is largely funded by the public purse as a result of a Cabinet decision before Christmas, a bailout was put in place for them to allow them continue to provide the very important services that they do,” said Mr Cummins.

“But there is an equivalent here to RTÉ, there were several investigations, reviews ongoing in RTÉ, there’s money from the public purse into that organisation. 

Can you imagine the outcry if RTÉ refused to come before the Public Accounts Committee or the Oireachtas media committee?

“It just wouldn’t have been a tenable position and it’s not a tenable position, in my opinion, for the McVerry Trust not to come before this committee and if we have to use our powers of compellability, I would be saying that we should do.”

Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe said there was an opportunity for the charity to “build trust” and avoid the very discussion that had taken place at the committee.

He said the Government had given a commitment that public money would be used to resolve the issue and called on the charity to reflect “very strongly” on its replies and come forward to discuss the additional public money handed to the charity.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said the charity’s refusal to attend was “deeply disappointing” and was preventing the members from doing their jobs.

Mr Matthews said he has written again to all three parties requesting that they attend and has reminded them of the powers that exist for the committee, under standing orders, to compel witnesses to appear.