Fr Peter McVerry has resigned from a key board post in the housing and homeless charity he established four decades ago, in a move that follows turmoil over a €15 million State bailout and governance failings.
The Jesuit priest stepped down last Friday as board secretary, a position he had held since 1983, at the same time as board chairwoman Deirdre-Ann Barr resigned her post.
There was no immediate comment from the charity on Fr McVerry’s resignation. An official filing to the Companies Registration Office on Monday suggests he remains a member of the board.
The resignations of the secretary and chairwoman – and the scheduled ending of the terms of three other directors – come as Ireland’s largest housing charity faces pressure from regulators to impose order over its chaotic affairs.
Ms Barr, a solicitor, joined the board in September 2020 and became chairwoman in May 2022, the year before the financial crunch that led a Government rescue package.
Her departure from the Peter McVerry Trust comes without the charity having a successor in place to take over as board chair.
Ms Barr is a former partner of law firm Matheson and served on the Company Law Review Group, a statutory expert advisory panel on company law. She is a director of State forestry company Coillte, chairwoman of the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and a member of the Central Bank regulatory decisions panel that enforces financial services law.
Disarray in the trust has been criticised in a succession of recent reports from the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority, the Charities Regulator and the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Such reports led to questions over the board’s failure to ensure effective stewardship of the charity’s affairs.
The Department of Housing, which receives regular updates from the trust, noted the chairwoman’s departure.
“The department was informed by Deirdre-Ann Barr in December 2024 that she would step down as chair from the end of January 2025. The department or Minister did not have any involvement in Ms Barr’s decision to step down,” it said.
A trust statement indicated three former directors – Richard Lavelle, Terry McCabe and Denis O’Leary – will not serve again on the board after their term concluded at the end of 2024.
Richard Lavelle, known as Dick, is a brother of solicitor Michael Lavelle, managing partner with the law firm that is the charity’s legal adviser. Lavelle Partners dismissed questions raised about the family connection in a December report for the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority, saying there was no conflict of interest.
Fr McVerry thanked the four departing directors for their “dedication, support and hard work during their tenures on the board, and wished them all the very best”.
Fr McVerry told Newstalk Breakfast on Wednesday morning that his departure from his role was a “non-story”.
“The position is that the people on the board of any charity and the secretary of any charity is expected to rotate on a regular basis. So there’s new blood coming in,” he said.
“I have been secretary of the trust since it was founded, which goes back a long, long time. And the regulators have asked that we just simply rotate the role. I’m quite happy to rotate the role,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
He said his resignation was not in any way connected to the State bailout of the charity. “Absolutely not. This would happen anyway.”
Fr McVerry acknowledged that there had been “deficiencies” and “a failure of financial oversight”. But the charity was getting back on track, he said.
After former Grant Thornton audit partner and head of risk Aidan Connaughton joined the McVerry board in November, the charity set out two new board appointments on Monday.
The incoming board members are Kathleen McCabe, who works in urban and community regeneration, and Nessan Vaughan, who has “worked in the public service for over three decades”.
The trust was “engaging with Boardmatch to assist in the recruitment of a new chairperson and additional directors positions that will become available in 2025”, it said. Boardmatch is a charity specialising in not-for-profit board recruitment.
Responding to questions last week, the McVerry trust said licence agreements under which it provides housing in three Limerick properties owned by the family of board director Gilbert Little were declared on its conflicts of interests register.
“Neither Mr Little, nor any members of his family, receive any income or benefit from this agreement,” the trust said.
“In 2016 the family entered into a licence agreement with Peter McVerry Trust under which the trust is licensed to use these three properties for the exclusive use of housing clients of the trust,” it added.
“There are three separate licence agreements, one for each property. The trust is responsible for all repairs, maintenance, and upkeep of the properties.”
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