When Tony O’Brien became chairman of the Peter McVerry Trust six months ago, the charity had been mired in controversy for more than a year. The homeless and housing body is still grappling with the fallout from a deep crisis but O’Brien insists it has a future.
“If I felt that the trust was damaged beyond repair – and that the best thing to do was to find a new vehicle for all the services – then that’s what I would have advocated for,” says O’Brien, a former director-general of the Health Service Executive.
“But I actually think that’s not the case and I think the trust is salvaged already and we’re on a journey to renewal and rehabilitation.”
Still, the road to recovery is long. A €15 million rescue package from the Minister for Housing in late 2023 had kept the trust afloat. But that led to a series of damning reports from housing and charity regulators and the State’s public spending watchdog, raising serious concern about misgovernance, loose financial controls and lax board oversight.
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