{"id":519142,"date":"2026-06-26T08:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519142\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T08:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:12:12","slug":"former-auditor-at-peter-mcverry-trust-excluded-from-professional-body-over-property-dealings-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519142\/","title":{"rendered":"Former auditor at Peter McVerry Trust excluded from professional body over property dealings \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former auditor of the Peter McVerry Trust<\/a> has been excluded by his professional body after he was found to have received \u201csignificant financial benefit\u201d in property dealings with the housing and homeless charity which marred his independence. <\/p>\n

The penalty was handed down by a disciplinary panel of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants<\/a> (ACCA), the global body for the profession, after it found Donal Ryan \u201cguilty of misconduct\u201d in audit work for the trust over nine years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe committee considered that Mr Ryan\u2019s conduct was a significant departure of his professional standards expected,\u201d said the ruling. The document was published online with redactions but not circulated to reporters covering the McVerry trust affair. <\/p>\n

Ryan, whose office is on Manor Street in Dublin<\/a>, said he was \u201cin the process of appealing the decision\u201d. The exclusion order is for 12 months but the effective date can be deferred if the ACCA grants permission to proceed with the appeal.<\/p>\n

The trust, established in the 1980s by Jesuit priest Fr Peter McVerry, is one of Ireland\u2019s best-known charities, providing affordable housing and services to thousands of tenants and homeless people. It was hit by financial troubles three years ago, leading to a \u20ac15 million Government rescue to avert potential collapse.<\/p>\n

A 2024 report for the Charities Regulator found Fr McVerry signed a legal document<\/a> in a 2018 property deal in which the trust spent almost \u20ac1 million buying nine properties from Ryan. The deal was one of two involving Ryan which were examined by the regulator. <\/p>\n

The ACCA panel imposed the exclusion on Ryan after a two-day hearing in May, which was observed by McVerry trust directors Aidan Connaughton and Gilbert Little and former chairwoman Deirdre-Ann Barr. <\/p>\n

The ruling found it was proved that Ryan signed audit certificates in the seven years between 2012 and 2018 when he had a \u201cfinancial or business relationship\u201d with the trust. The relationship involved renting property for six years and the 2018 sale of nine two-bed houses. <\/p>\n

In the years between 2015 and 2021, he was also found to have signed audit certificates \u201cwhen a close family member had a financial or business relationship\u201d with the trust for property maintenance services. <\/p>\n

Ryan accepted the allegations but did not accept he was guilty of misconduct. He claimed he did not consider his independence compromised when completing the audits. <\/p>\n

He did not declare a conflict of interest to the trust and did not seek ACCA ethical advice. <\/p>\n

The trust, not named in the ruling, was described throughout the document as \u201cCompany A\u201d. Ryan\u2019s barrister Helan Callanan said he was \u201cnaive and despite its appearance Company A was not a slush fund\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a case where he has tried to deceive the trust,\u201d Callanan was quoted as saying. \u201cHe received fair market value for the rent of the properties and sale of the properties.\u201d <\/p>\n

The panel took into account aggravating factors, among them the nine-year duration of the misconduct. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was significant adverse publicity in this particular case given it involved a significant charity which undermined public confidence in the profession,\u201d it said. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo safeguards were in place by Mr Ryan or his firm in relation to the conflict of interest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan had limited insight. \u201cHe had accepted responsibility in hindsight but only in relation to a perception of a conflict of interest rather than an actual conflict of interest.\u201d <\/p>\n

However, his engagement and early admission were mitigating factors. <\/p>\n

There was no comment from the McVerry trust.<\/p>\n

The ACCA did not answer questions on the ruling. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former auditor of the Peter McVerry Trust has been excluded by his professional body after he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[221450,72,615,61,60,28520],"class_list":["post-519142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-association-of-chartered-certified-accountants-acca","tag-business","tag-dublin","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-peter-mcverry-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}