It’s understood that the Peter McVerry Trust spent almost €400,000 on a house in Kerry which was intended to be used by the family of a friend of its former CEO.
An investigation by RTÉ’s Prime Time programme revealed that the former CEO of the housing and homeless charity, Pat Doyle, had told staff that the Kerry property was to be used by the family of a friend.
An internal McVerry Trust document states that when Mr Doyle’s successor tried to find out if the family of Mr Doyle’s friend was eligible for such social housing, no such evidence could be obtained.
Prime Time’s Paul Murphy reports that the document says the property was acquired using funds donated under the Department of Justice Immigration Investor Programme, which is now closed.
Such funds were given for social housing, and not other types of affordable or private housing; the document observed.
Potential investors under the Immigration Investor Programme were contacted with details of six properties with the capacity to contain multiple dwellings, none of which were in Kerry, and none of which were a single family home.
Prime Time established that the proposed tenancy in the Kerry property did not go ahead after Francis Doherty -who succeeded Pat Doyle but later resigned – questioned its legitimacy.
RTÉ Prime Time also established that the McVerry Trust bought the house in Kerry in late 2022 for over €290,000 and that it’s understood around a further €100,000 was paid to renovate the property.
Prime Time has found there’s no suggestion that the family friend of the former CEO had acted inappropriately.
