Peter McVerry Trust has 'financial issues'.

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989995#Comment_120989995

Exactly!

I think the last 15/20 years the Government has not been "governing" and everyone has been just let rip. You can just do what you want now.

There's all sorts of mad stuff going on in society now. I actually don't think it's fixable at this stage.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990063#Comment_120990063

...shur this is one of the main aims of modern political and economic theory, i.e. to reduce the involvement of government....

Jack Daw

So many NGO's/Charities do exactly the same thing and would be much more efficient if they were merged.

GOAL/Trocaire/Concern essentially do the same thing, there is zero need for the 3 of them to exist yet they do.Much better use of resources to amalgamate them all and it would improve efficiency and more money would get to the people and places that need it.

Of course you do that it means less managerial/executive roles and therefore it'll never happen.

tesla_newbie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989331#Comment_120989331

McVerry himself is incapable of keeping his political opinions to himself, he acts like a demagogue much of the time, he is of course a darling of the media so I doubt the trust will be hauled over the coals too much

Furze99

I've donated to Alice Leahy Trust, that seems to genuinely rely mostly/ completely on public contributions

Never to any of the others, with their hands out for more and more taxpayers money every year.

Nermal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989954#Comment_120989954

No need to outlaw them, just cease funding them. If the public want to continue funding them, let them do so voluntarily.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990569#Comment_120990569

...so what part of society/economoy should be providing this fundamental need?

timmyntc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990612#Comment_120990612

Local authority social housing does exactly the same stuff. And they could do a lot more if they got the millions directed to Mcverry trust, cluid, etc

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989246#Comment_120989246

Earlier someone noted that many of the housing charities were set up by volunteers like - people like Fr. McVerry, Sr. Statislaus Kennedy and Sr. Jean Quinn - and I'd add Fr. Patrick Coogan to the list. They may not have drawn a wage, and may well live very simply - but they are all members of religious orders which provide food, housing, clothing, health insurance, etc. Totally unfair to compare them with regular volunteers.

It’s not though. The other poster I was responding to was making the point that nobody would want to be the CEO of the organisation on a voluntary basis. The founders worked on a voluntary basis to establish the organisations in the first place. They didn’t grow to the size they are without being run like a private enterprise, receiving more and more public funding as they expanded to the point they’re at now where the cost of doing business is beginning to hit home. The funding was always contingent upon deliverables, and the organisation, like many of their clients, or service users, are feeling the financial strain of being unable to meet their costs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120989275#Comment_120989275

I haven’t suggested this particular organisation should be managed and run by volunteer staff, it’s gone too far for that. It’s why I pointed out to the poster I was responding to that it would be unlikely they would find anyone willing to volunteer their time, skills and experience to fill the CEO role, because they’re not interested in filling the role with someone who cares about the cause more than they care about the financial remuneration for themselves. They’re competing for funding and management of housing with other organisations so bringing in people from the private sector with experience in seeking funding and managing funding and managing an organisation of its size are how it grows.

I don’t think there is any aspect of the charity which needs to be investigated at all tbh. It’s quite clear that they’ve been spending money like it was going out of fashion, and now they’re struggling to compete with other organisations who are just managed better, like Tuath Housing, who had a record year in 2022:

https://tuathhousing.ie/news-stories/2022-a-record-breaking-year-for-tuath-housing/

It’s not a mind-numbingly silly notion to look at where they could cut costs, because they need to run a hell of a tighter ship, but they’ve known that for years, and continued to operate as though the funding would never run out and they could be the biggest player in the market. It looks like they may well have to look at scaling back operations as other charities move in on their territory.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990666#Comment_120990666

...but again....

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990093#Comment_120990093

.....

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990612#Comment_120990612

If the will was there, investment/ pension funds and related developers could be used - under properly framed legislation that would control rents & profits etc.

Wanderer78

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990723#Comment_120990723

...tons of will out there, but very little ability!

blanch152

I have been hugely critical on these pages for many years of the "poverty industry", the charities that are dedicated to perpetuating themselves and their funding and not really wanting to solve problems, because without a homelessness problem, we wouldn't need homeless charities.

So, even when they are getting huge amounts of money from the State, they have to say that the problem is getting bigger so that they can get more money and keep on growing. If homelessness was solved tomorrow, the biggest losers would be charities like PMVT.

I am not one bit surprised about the problems. Issues were clear within PMVT last year when there was a corpse found after a week in one of their apartments. Either they were not doing the inspections they claimed to be doing (and were funded for) or the people they hired to do them were incompetent.

We must end the funding of homelessness charities and bring their functions back under government. Problem is, the local authorities, who you would expect to take over, are probably only slightly less incompetent than the charities.

There is no point in giving money to charities in Ireland, I stopped that years ago, give time, work for your local charities and groups, sit on boards, help out schools etc.

touts

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120987959#Comment_120987959

There was some scandal a few years ago when they published their accounts and it turned out they "employed" over 300 people and over 70% of the money raised was going on wages etc, but no one could explain what most of the employees did as opposed to the volunteers. They brazened it out back then but it looks like they have finally run out of road. I'd say the new CEO came in, looked at the books and went WTF!!!!

As a general rule I don't donate to charities that are named after their head. That sort of ego tends to pollute the whole organisation. The Charity industry in Ireland has a huge problem with this sort of thing. I would say we'll see a rebrand and Fr Peter will be shoved into a rural parish down the country.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991024#Comment_120991024

There is no point in giving money to charities in Ireland, I stopped that years ago, give time, work for your local charities and groups, sit on boards, help out schools etc.

I don’t agree with that. There is of course a point in donating money to charities in Ireland - they use it to provide services to more people than I as an individual on my own could provide. That’s due to a number of factors, including logistics, negotiation with stakeholders and of course managing funding from various sources including the amount of public funding they receive.

The principle of never attribute to malice what is explained by incompetence (or something like that) applies to a lot of these charities which on the face of it are run like a well-oiled machine, but behind the scenes it’s all too often a very different story. The vast majority of people involved in the charities are people who care about the cause, and then there are the tiny minority of people who care more about what’s in it for themselves. That’s missing the point of charity, which is characterised by the idea that it is an altruistic endeavour.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991195#Comment_120991195

I have spent some time looking at the accounts of major charities, and there is a huge amount of waste. If it is a big charity, don't donate. Give money to local charities instead, if you can't give time, but time is much more precious.

One eyed Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991204#Comment_120991204

Simply reviewing the accounts will tell you very little about the organisations operations, at best all it will do is give you a headache 😂

It won’t tell you for example, like the example you mentioned earlier, that staff aren’t conducting inspections in accordance with the organisations guidelines or policies (and there are many, many policies!).

The simple fact of the matter is that it’s pointless telling people not to donate when they will completely ignore your advice and donate anyway, sometimes in the region of thousands left to national charity organisations in their wills. They donate to local charities too at the same time, it’s not as though anyone has to decide between one or the other, just donate to whatever charity works for the causes they care about. How they perceive the operation being run and it’s effectiveness will undoubtedly determine whether or not they give to one charity over another.

Beta Ray Bill

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990569#Comment_120990569

Ya cant.

What happens is they get a few hundred people housed, and then they say they've no money and they need money otherwise those few hundred people are going to be out on the street. In that scenario, the government has no choice but to pay out, or face a very negative backlash

No government wants that.

Floppybits

Is it really any surprise? I suppose the only surprise is that it has taken this long for something like this to come out. The impression I get is that the charity sector is like wild west, lawless. How many scandals have we had now relating to all sorts of charities? As @ZookeeperDub pointed out above "how do people still give to charity" considering what has gone on.

For me it is has hard to give to the big charities or NGO's because you don't know where the money is going. I myself will only give to 2 charities, one is Saint Francis hospice and that is because of the care and compassion that they gave my dad in his final weeks, not only did they take care of him but I think they saved my mam as well because the only other option was having him at home and there is no way my mam or the rest of us, as the HSE wanted, have been able to take care of him 24x7. I think that would have taken so much out of my mam as well that she would have ended sick as well. The other charity is a small local Autism charity that was set up by a good friend and few other families who despite promises weren't getting the help off the HSE that their children needed so they got together and set up a charity and it has gone from strength to strength and you can see the work they do and the impact it has on the kids and their families. But they are the only ones and only because I can see the work going on and what they are doing where as with a lot of the other charities you don't see what they are doing and the money goes into a black hole. I also think the bigger a charity gets the more chance you get of the predators moving in and taking advantage.

The only reason for small-scale charities to exist would be to address specific localised issues that mightn’t fall under the remit of the larger ones. Otherwise the major charities should be amalgamated, maybe with branches dealing with different aspects, eg re homelessness, a few divisions addressing the needs of the different groups of clients in need of services.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991295#Comment_120991295

Actually, it tells you an awful lot, you get a very clear idea of the commission that they pay the chuggers and others who collect money on their behalf. You are lucky if 60% of what you donate to a chugger makes it to the organisation, and after that, there is the money that is spent on administration, on lobbying and on marketing.

In some cases, it seems to me that the donated element is spent on administration, commission, lobbying and marketing, and it is only the government grants that actually get spent on what they should be spent on, presumably because the C&AG will come after them for that.

Wouldn't give a penny to any of the big charities.

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991373#Comment_120991373

I know St. Francis Hospice, a small and excellent charity, and the other one, where you know and trust the people is worth donating to.

However, if you know a charity from their own publicity, like Trocaire, Concern, Goal, PMVT, Simon Community, SVDP etc., don't bother giving them anything.

corner of hells

Especially those fuckers in the RNLI or ONE and definitely that shower DEBRA.

Guess what charity I work ?

“posting from my holiday home in the Caribbean “.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120990666#Comment_120990666

I doubt it.

I've had the opportunity to closely observe housing officers working for one of the big-five NGO non-profit housing organisations. They worked a LOT harder than any council worker I've ever seen.

Councils are restricted by in what they can do by the Public Finance Act etc -private organisations have a lot more leeway. Arguably we'd get better value by handing over all the council housing to a non-peofit organisation.

Operationally, it makes sense to have two organisations operating in each area: troublesome tenants can be evicted from one and housed by the as a "last resort": if there's only one organisation then eviction is meaningless because the same people have to rehouse you.

corner of hells

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120991964#Comment_120991964

That’s exactly what happens in hostels , if you’re troublesome I.e. aggressive, not paying rent , not engaging around care plans you’ll be swapped between the likes of Focus , Simon etc

cheese sandwich

McVerry was shouting recently that Ireland was a failed state.

Not so failed that it can’t give his charity 50m a year though

griffin100

I remember him saying that the government had judges sending people to jail to lower the homelessness figures. He’s Paul Murphy in a cassock.

mariaalice

I am sure it will be much better run and better value when its take over by the HSE or housing department or various councils :)

Agent Coulson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120992801#Comment_120992801

The local councils admit they are aren’t experts when it comes to dealing with homelessness and they along HSE fund PMVT and the other homeless charities to the tune of millions a week because they call themselves the experts in dealing with homelessness.

They aren’t they just want to get their foot in the door and become landlords these charities want a revolving door of homelessness to keep that money flowing.

RonanG86

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120988905#Comment_120988905

De Paul are getting over €1m via the Council and the HSE to run a homeless hostel in one county. Can't be more exact cos I don't work in that area anymore.

Housing Charities are basically a product of the government farming out their responsibilities re: Housing and Homeless Accommodation to the private sector in the 2000s and 2010s. Ditto the Housing Association Sector (Cluid, CHI etc.)