Peter McVerry Trust chief executive resigns, criticising ‘long-standing governance failings’

The chief executive of the Peter McVerry Trust has resigned, claiming that “repeated and long-standing governance failings” over a number of years had brought the homelessness charity to the brink of financial collapse.

In a resignation letter seen by The Irish Times, Francis Doherty, who took over as head of the trust this June, said he felt the board of the charity had made his position “untenable”.

The charity has been in the middle of a big financial crisis, grappling with serious cash flow problems and significant debts since the middle of this year. This was compounded last month by the State’s regulator for housing bodies opening a statutory investigation into financial issues at the trust.

In a letter on Wednesday, Mr Doherty said when he took over as chief executive the trust had “insufficient funds to meet creditor, payroll and Revenue commitments”.

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The letter to chair of the board, Deirdre-Ann Barr, said by July the charity was facing “imminent financial collapse”.

Mr Doherty said the charity had been able to “survive the current financial challenges thus far”, in part as a result of the sale of several properties.

The charity had sold a property in Santry, north Dublin, for €1 million, with plans to bring in a further €5.87 million from the sale of more properties.

Mr Doherty said that further findings from auditors PwC, who had been brought in to conduct an independent review the financial and governance issues, indicated that the financial problems at the charity “had arisen over a number of years”.

The letter said this pointed to “repeated and long-standing governance failings”.

He also said he had come across a “substantial amount of concerning information” related to spending and other financial matters at the charity, which posed a “potential risk to the organisation”.

The charity is one of the largest providers of homeless services in the State, reporting an income last year of around €60 million.

The chief executive said he felt there had been a reluctance from the board to “communicate openly” with executives at the trust during the crisis.

He said when he established “the true extent” of the charity’s creditor liabilities in early July that he felt it was necessary to notify the Department of Housing and its main funder, the Dublin Region Homeless Executive.

Mr Doherty, who was previously director of housing and communications, said his decision to resign “has not been taken lightly”, having worked for the charity for more than a decade.

“I am immensely proud of the great work our staff do to better the lives of people on the margins. Yet I find that my position is now untenable,” he wrote.

“I sincerely hope that swift action can be taken to protect the services of the charity, its service users and staff,” he said.

In a statement, a spokeswoman for the charity confirmed Mr Doherty had tendered his resignation to the board on Wednesday.

“Our focus remains on the future of the organisation. We will co-operate with all stakeholders to achieve that as best as possible. Continuity of care for our participant group remains our priority,” she said.

“We are disappointed with Francis’s decision but we wish him well after what has been a difficult period for him.”

A Department of Housing spokesman said Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has sought confirmation from the charity’s board that its services would “continue uninterrupted” following the chief executive’s resignation.

The spokesman said the Government’s priority was the continuity of homeless services provided by the trust.

“Given the ongoing processes and the ABHRA investigation, the Department will not be commenting any further,” he said.