{"id":58759,"date":"2025-10-03T06:34:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/58759\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T06:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T06:34:06","slug":"gardai-begin-criminal-investigation-into-peter-mcverry-trust-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/58759\/","title":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed begin criminal investigation into Peter McVerry Trust \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Garda\u00ed<\/a> have begun a criminal investigation into affairs of the Peter McVerry Trust <\/a>(PMVT), almost two years after the financial crunch that led to a \u20ac15 million Government lifeline<\/a> for the housing and homeless charity.<\/p>\n

The investigation began in early September, following a lengthy evaluation by the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. The office was formerly known as the bureau of fraud investigation.<\/p>\n

Replying to questions, the charity said An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na \u201chas not made any direct contact with Peter McVerry Trust\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, PMVT said solicitors Mason Hayes & Curran made a confidential disclosure on its behalf to garda\u00ed \u201cin relation to invoices issued by a contractor\u201d.<\/p>\n

That disclosure was made in June under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act, which prohibits the withholding of information that might assist in a prosecution or conviction. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis step was taken as a prudent and precautionary measure in light of information that may have legal implications,\u201d the trust said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe will co-operate fully with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na and are committed to providing any information they may require.\u201d\u202f<\/p>\n

The trust declined to provide any further detail. There was no Garda comment on the specific issues under investigation. <\/p>\n

The PMVT was established in the 1980s by Jesuit priest Fr Peter McVerry. One of Ireland\u2019s best-known charities, it provides affordable housing and services to thousands of tenants and homeless people.<\/p>\n

Misgovernance in the PMVT and lax financial controls have been criticised in a series of damning reports by housing and charity regulators and the Comptroller and Auditor General, the public spending watchdog.<\/p>\n

The trust received \u20ac164.3 million in State funding in 2018-2022 and \u20ac72.6 million in donations. It is now almost wholly reliant on State money because donations collapsed in the wake of the crisis. <\/p>\n

Delayed financial accounts for 2023 are scheduled to be filed this month, after aspects of PMVT\u2019s 2022 accounts are restated for a second time.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed signalled in February that officers were assessing information on a \u201cbody in the housing sector\u201d to establish whether there may have been a criminal offence.<\/p>\n

The position for months was that a criminal investigation is not commenced \u201cuntil it is established that a criminal offence has been committed\u201d. However, Garda scrutiny escalated in recent weeks with moves to initiate a criminal investigation.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there was any change in the status of Garda interest, a Garda spokeswoman said the force does not comment on named entities. \u201cAn Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na has commenced an investigation into a body in the housing sector,\u201d the spokeswoman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs this is an ongoing investigation An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na has no further comment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The PMVT, now under the control of a new board and management, told an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday that it has undertaken extensive work to rebuild public trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Garda\u00ed have begun a criminal investigation into affairs of the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT), almost two years after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58760,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,61,60,43,28520],"class_list":{"0":"post-58759","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-peter-mcverry-trust"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58759","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=58759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58759\/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=58759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}