Peter McVerry Trust has 'financial issues'.

”Trust”

…..but not anymore

Charities regulator not coming off well this evening

Is anyone or anything in this country honest anymore, or where they ever!??

What a basket case of a country we have.

So, 11,500 charities in Ireland - I imagine many get their donations via bookface and social media because I certainly don’t know the name of 11,500 Irish charities- the regulator itself admits it has piss poor processes for veting new requests for charity status in the past and considering 37% of charities haven’t submitted financial reports to the charities regulator as they’re required to do but only a handful have been prosecuted for this-, it’s simple to deduct that 1000s of charities out there who have the guise of being legitimate are simply there to swindle the public and line the pockets of the charity founder -

It’s like a random begging letter is probably more likely to be a legitimate request for money, than an Irish registered charity (yes slight exaggeration, but not by much)

He's 80 years old so presumably in receipt of a Contributory Pension and perhaps some assistance from his order, Jesuits Ireland.

Charities and Regulator came out very poorly there. Amazing how all these charities start out with great intentions, but then become so corrupt as time goes by….

Is Heather Humphreys the main government top brass over "charities"

A cousin of my grandfather was an only child and had been estranged from all of the extended family for a long time. He passed away with no immediate family but efforts to reach extended family were successful. Anyway there was another first cousin who was a nun and the glee of this woman when she thought she was bringing an inheritance into the order was incredible. He had come from a much better off side of the family but had never really worked and lived a fairly frugal life on whatever he'd inherited. It must have been some shock to the nun to find out there was **** all left in the end. The rest of the family were relieved to find out he'd reached a good age in relative contentment but she was a piece of work.

There is either a coldness that are in people to become nuns or it is part of the initiation and conditioning. Ever wonder why Tusla and Nuns do the same work? The same people with different uniforms.

These people run charities, its not just the money, its the power over another human beings life.

Myself and wife were desperately in need of accomodation. No sign of one coming, no criminal records, one on disabilty one on minimum wage. Simon community were all talk and useless.

All this money is lost on wages, advertising, corporate entertainment (T&A account) and feck all to show for it.

personally I think all charities start off with the best of intentions, they then become these big organisations without the controls of companies.

someone takes advantage and it comes ceashing down, but basically it's regulatory failure and the fact that gov can't be bothered providing services.

I see Simon have closed in donegal and there's no council service to even contact.

if the public service can't be bothered, get rid of the staff and subcontract whatever services and then you can have metrics and service level agreements.

An elderly grand aunt of mine is always falling for those kind of Facebook campaigns/scams that they showed on primetime last night (we need X amount by Friday, or the donkey will have to go to the knackersyard) Just this week , she sent 1800€ to Africa to pay for the "school fees of a big family" 🙄

I think having the volume of charities that exist in Ireland at present masks the lack of work the government or doing- and yes, many of the people in these charities don’t have the requisite skills or knowledge to run them compliantly and effectively .

We’ve heard too many stories now about embezzlement bad accounting failure to keep records etc to know that there’s something rotten going on out there.

Personal appeals on go fund me from people you know or relatives of people you know, seem to be where people are directing their donations these days- I’m the last week I got 3 requests- a family members friend who she’s known since childhood, and two women’s marathons fund raisers for two people with cancer - I gave to all 3. This is money charities used to get so I’d say takings are down all round as the public aren’t as gullible as they once were and some of the big charity names are not what they once were from a credibility and trust perspective

I agree.

The meagre finances of an elderly priest are neither here nor there in the context of what we are discussing.

I think there's a lot of misunderstanding about what a charity is in this thread. In reality it's a tax / revenue status that allows you to avoid certain taxes. To get charitable status you need to show that you are engaged in a charitable cause. The vast majority of charities are not volunteer driven, raising money for a good cause type of organisation, most charities are more professional than that.

I sit on the Board of a charity that has no donors, does not use volunteers, does not provide a 'caring' service to people or animals, and which is run and operated by well paid professionals. Because however it is engaged in one of the ten areas of charity and does not have shareholders or members to whom it has to provide a dividend to (i.e. is a not for profit) it has charitable status. There are lots of companies that operate like that. I would also note that Charity trustees cannot be paid for sitting on the Board of a Charity, although if they are Executive Directors they will be getting a salary.

In my role on that Board I have had dealings with the Charities Regulator and they are exactly as the Prime Time programme showed them to be.

There is no "cushy number" on the board of a charity.

Board members of a charity cannot be paid.

After watching last nights Prime Time episode investigating charities in Ireland I will not donate a single cent of my money to any charity in this country until someone is sentenced to prison for at least a year based on what was exposed. Peter McVerry Trust was always touted as a great charity doing great work, probably the best that in that your money would be going direct to the right causes, the complete opposite is the case, McVerry should step down and disassociate himself from this joke of an organisation.

There's so many existing regulations in this country for white collar crime, fraud and money laundering that people need to be behind bars after what was exposed. Then you have the handling of those exposing the fraud thrown to the ditch by the authorities they are to report governance issues to, such an absolute corrupt country we are living in, an unpoliced joke.

Transactions to Bet 365 from Cat Haven charity, did he have any big winners to treat his kittens to, lol. Hopefully the entire charity industry in the country completely collapses after seeing this.

You are right that there are good local charities which are worth supporting.

However many of the bigger charities are providing essential services to people who depend on them.

I'd prefer to see them brought into line by a stronger oversight system than to allow them to collapse and leave those who need them to suffer.

Look at the development of charities and you see a pattern: Steps to a fortune are

1. a person with empathy sees a local problem and sets about helping out of the goodness of their heart
2. they rope in a few other people on a voluntary basis to provide what is a useful service
3. they apply for funding from local authority etc to help cover out of pocket costs
4. after a few years, they apply for funding for an office/ office worker to help organise the volunteers
5. they apply for more money each year and expand staff to include a campaign fundraiser and lobbyist
6. they establish their brand and even though still largely voluntary, start to make their service indispensable
7. once established as indispensable, they move away from the voluntary model and become fully professional
8. they continue to expand, increasing their funding requests year on year.
9. the work is important, but equally now are the pay & conditions, pension arrangements of the growing staff
10. the needs of the staff become paramount if funding is threatened.
11. it becomes an empire building exercise.

No charity should be allowed to go beyond step 2.

After that it is a business.

https://www.rte.ie/news/primetime/2024/0611/1454193-mcverry-contract-tender/

A transport company owned by a couple who are tenants of the Peter McVerry Trust was given a €200,000 bus contract by the housing charity without a tender process, Prime Time has learned.

One of the tenants, Alan Bollard, who operates the bus company, later went on to work as head of logistics at the McVerry Trust. 

However, public records show that in late 2016, Mr Bollard sold a home he had purchased around the peak of the property bubble, ten years earlier. Around the time of that sale, he moved into a house that was purchased by the McVerry Trust.

An internal Peter McVerry Trust document seen by Prime Time says that the "property was bought using PMVT's charitable funds and the tenants given a 25-year lease at 80% market rate."

but for several years, he was simultaneously a tenant, employee and contractor for the McVerry Trust.

I'd love to hear from the poster who used to attack anybody who dared question McVerry, I wonder if he was on the take as much as everybody else appears to have been.

Gifted a house in Cellbridge where Father Pat also lives and mates as well, always said there was money to made out of religion.

I have zero faith in the charities regulator