IRELAND’S largest housing charity, the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT), made undeclared payments over the course of a decade to a firm that was owned by its own external auditor, an Irish Mail on Sunday Investigation can reveal.

The charity’s ex-auditor, Donal Ryan, also did not declare any conflict of interest with this firm, Electronic Commerce Training Consultancy (ECTC) – the ownership of which was later switched to his sister Mary – while auditing the trust’s accounts.

Mr Ryan, who runs Dublin-based accountancy and auditing firm, Donal Ryan & Associates, was the external auditor of PMVT for a decade and a half, from 2006 to the end of 2021.

The 2020 switch of this firm to his sister’s ownership is just the latest revelation regarding Mr Ryan’s non-declaration of PMVT’s payments to firms controlled by his family.

Payments to firms associated with Mr Ryan’s family first came into focus in October 2024 when inspectors from the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA) discovered that millions had been paid to Rubycon Developments Ltd.

Rubycon Developments is owned via a separate holding company by Donal Ryan’s brother, Anthony Ryan, and his wife Teresa Morrissey. The MoS has established this money was paid via multiple invoices over an eight-year period between 2016-2024.

Mary Ryan’s ownership of ECTC brings a second sibling into the mix of undeclared related party transactions with the charity. The firm stopped being a contractor of PMVT in 2022.

But the MoS can further reveal Donal Ryan’s other sibling, his sister Breda, is also a director, alongside her husband Conor, of a different firm, Purcell Auctioneers, that received payments from PMVT for services between 2014 and 2024 that also should have been, but were not, declared as related party transactions.

This means in all three separate firms with a total of five Ryan family members – his three siblings along with a brother-in-law and sister-in-law – on their boards, were providing services to PMVT in 2022.

While Mr Ryan stepped down as auditor in 2021, he remained the accountant for all of his siblings’ firms.

Electronic Commerce Training & Consultancy Ltd is currently owned by Mary Ryan. Birth records confirm she is a sister of Donal Ryan. There is no suggestion that Mary Ryan or her firm committed any wrongdoing.

However, the MoS has established that this firm was routinely working for the charity for a 12-year period between 2010 and 2022.

For the first 10 years of this period, Donal Ryan and his brother Anthony owned the company.

PMVT has not revealed how much Electronic Commerce Training & Consultancy Ltd received between 2010 and 2022.

However, PMVT did confirm that the company billed the charity for work worth €18,905 prior to 2023. Of this amount €14,060 was paid in 2023 while the balance remains outstanding.

None of the payments made to the company were ever referred to in any related party transaction declarations by PMVT.

According to records from the Company Registrations Office, Electronic Commerce Training & Consultancy Ltd was originally incorporated in 2002 by Donal Ryan. The firm’s registered address has always been listed at his Manor Street accountancy practice in Dublin.

In the early days of the company, Donal Ryan himself – and his brother Anthony – were directors before Donal was replaced by his sister Mary in 2014. Crucially Donal maintained his 50 per cent shareholding for a further six years during which it continued to do work for PMVT.

In 2020 the firm, until then jointly owned by Donal and Anthony, was transferred 100 per cent to Mary.

According to the company’s returns, Mary is listed as residing at the original Ryan family homestead and farm at Derrahiney, near Portumna in Co. Galway.

When approached there in recent weeks, Mary confirmed her identity but declined to discuss the financial affairs of her wider family. ‘No comment,’ she said, before closing the door.

The owners of Rubycon – whose undeclared connection to Donal Ryan has been previously revealed by investigators – Anthony Ryan and his wife Teresa live on a substantial farm near Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, where Donal Ryan also owns farmland.

Rubycon Developments, meanwhile, is listed at the home of Teresa Morrissey’s recently-deceased father, Sylvester, at Cloneen, near Clonmel.

The accountant and bookkeeper for Rubycon has always been Donal Ryan – something he never declared to PMVT.

PMVT has confirmed to the MoS that Rubycon Developments sent its first invoice to PMVT on March 31, 2016. It then became a preferred contractor, without any tender process, when it entered into a formal supplier contract with the charity in October 2018.

According to the latest accounts for PMVT, Rubycon was paid €3,668,971 in 2023.

An outstanding balance of €2,772,243, relating to previous work, is described as ‘currently under dispute and remains unpaid’.

Despite auditing PMVT and being the accountant for Rubycon Developments at the same time, Donal Ryan never disclosed this as a potential conflict of interest. He did, however, cooperate with inspectors from the AHBRA and was interviewed for their 2024 investigation.

In recent weeks, the MoS also sought to speak to Donal Ryan at his Dublin practice but he refused to comment before driving away in a work van. Fresh queries to his accountancy practice in the recent weeks also went unanswered.

His brother Anthony also declined to respond to messages left with his mother at his home near Nenagh before Christmas.

Additional email queries to Anthony Ryan also went unanswered.

During a brief encounter last month, Mrs Ryan Snr confirmed that she was mother to Donal and Anthony. She also confirmed that PMVT still owed Rubycon Developments money.

The third business linked to the Ryan family that has received payments from the PMVT is Purcell Auctioneers for services rendered between 2014 and 2024, the MoS has established. The firm, with an address in Green Street, Birr, Co. Offaly, is linked to Donal Ryan’s sister Breda.

Purcell Auctioneers was most recently registered as a trading name based at the Green Street address in 2016. According to Company Registrations Office filings, the auctioneering business is owned by a company called Purcell Auctions And Estate Agents Ltd.

Donal Ryan’s sister Breda is listed as secretary of this firm and has been a director since its incorporation a decade ago. A second director is Breda’s husband, Conor Purcell, who is the only shareholder of the firm.

As well as selling property, Purcell Auctioneers specialises in online auctions of antiquarian books and other historical items.

Breda also runs an antique shop beside her husband’s auctioneering premises called Memory Lane Antiques. This too is a trading name most recently registered to Purcell Auctions And Estate Agents Ltd.

Responding to queries from the MoS, PMVT has confirmed that Purcell Auctioneers provided real estate, training and consulting services to the charity worth €27,141 in 2022 and €5,288 in 2023.

These payments were not listed in the 2022 accounts of the charity but were included as a related party transaction in the charity’s recently-published 2023 accounts.

However, the accounts did not name Purcell Auctioneers or any family members of Donal Ryan.

Instead, they stated that ‘close family members of the auditor’ had provided the services.

It remains unknown how much Purcell Auctioneers received between 2014 when the firm first began working for PMVT – and 2024 when PMVT first declared any payments in the 2023 accounts. Any business relationship ceased in 2024.

As with other firms linked to his siblings, Donal Ryan files the annual returns for Purcell Auctions And Estate Agents Ltd.

In correspondence with the MoS, Conor Purcell said Breda Ryan ‘had no hand act or part’ in any of his auctioneering businesses. He also confirmed that his firm had worked for PMVT.

‘In common with many other leading auctioneering firms, Purcell Auctioneers has carried out some professional work for PMVT and in this regard substantial fees are outstanding,’ he said. ‘I did not do any work for PMVT during 2024 or 2025 and the last payment that I received from PMVT was in 2022. There are still outstanding monies due from PMVT.’

Mr Purcell added that his business had ‘acted professionally and appropriately at all times’.

‘Purcell Auctioneers has an unblemished professional reputation and has acted appropriately throughout its limited professional interactions with PMVT,’ Mr Ryan added.

There is no suggestion otherwise.

These payments to Purcell Auctioneers and ECTC were not listed by separate investigations by inspectors from AHBRA and the Charities Regulator published in late 2024.

This is not the first time the regulators appear to have missed apparent breaches of routine governance and transparency procedures at PMVT.

In previous coverage, the MoS revealed how the charity bought a house from its own head of IT without declaring the purchase as a related party transaction.

This oversight, a breach of governance rules, was not identified by inspectors and not made public until we reported it last month.

Separately, the 2018 sale by Donal Ryan of nine apartments (in a development called The Heritage on the Main Street in Birr) to PMVT, at a time when he was the charity’s auditor, was one of the controversies identified as a concern by the Charities Regulator.

The townhouses, which had been developed by Donal Ryan, were bought by PMVT for €945,000 without any related party transaction being publicly disclosed.

Before Christmas, the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard that after the purchase, PMVT had to spend a further €300,000 with Rubycon Developments to ‘remedy defects which it was responsible for fixing in the first place’ at the Birr properties.

Mr Purcell asked the MoS to counter any implication because of his business being located in Birr, that he was involved in the sale or purchase of The Hermitage development.

He added: ‘I had no involvement in relation to the sale or purchase of these townhouses and acted appropriately at all times.’

The PAC heard this further expenditure was required because of ‘substantial defects’ at the property at the time the former CEO, Pat Doyle, agreed to the deal.

MoS queries to each of the siblings – and Donal Ryan – about our revelations went unanswered in recent weeks.

These revelations follow gardaí escalating their criminal investigation into alleged financial irregularities at PMVT.

A week before Christmas, as part of that investigation, officers from the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau seized documents during searches at several addresses throughout the State.

CONTROVERSY-hit housing charity the Peter McVerry Trust wasted €172,000 in funds for the homeless by renting a derelict and uninhabitable property for more than five years, an Irish Mail on Sunday investigation reveals.

The country’s largest housing charity also bought a house from its own head of IT for €170,000 in another undisclosed property deal that was not declared as a related-party transaction, something that is required by governance and transparency rules.

Both the undeclared house purchase and the scale of the wasted rental payments were not uncovered during last year’s investigations by the Charities Regulator and the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority (AHBRA). These regulatory probes have cost the taxpayer more than €400,000.

Today’s revelations come as the Peter McVerry Trust (PMVT) seeks to move on from recent scandals involving conflicts of interest, poor financial controls and millions in misspent funds.

It will also fuel fears that the Government has failed to properly regulate the country’s Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs).

With more than 400 AHBs in the sector, controlling as much as €10billion in assets, the chair of the Dáil spending watchdog this weekend expressed fears that ‘another Peter McVerry-style scandal may be lurking’.

As a result of the mismanagement, during the 18-year rule of former CEO Pat Doyle, taxpayers have so far had to bail out PMVT by €15m, with no guarantee the charity will survive.

Recent investigations by inspectors from the Charities Regulator and the Housing Regulator were aimed at disclosing all financial breaches, allowing PMVT to move on with a clean sheet.

According to the Charities Regulator, its investigation was ‘carried out by an internal forensic accountant and a senior forensic accountant from Deloitte’ at a cost of €212,185. The total cost of AHBRA’s statutory investigation was €197,015.25.

As recently as two weeks ago, amid extraordinary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) revelations of expenditure on a Peacock enclosure and an unauthorised lift for then CHEQUE:

CEO Doyle, PMVT refiled new accounts for 2022 and 2023 to take account of the regulators’ findings.

These re-filed accounts contain various related-party transactions that had not been previously disclosed as required by transparency rules.

However, our investigation confirms the inspectors missed glaring examples of poor governance during their inquiries, raising questions about what else may have been missed.

One money-wasting deal the inspectors failed to get to the bottom of involves the rental of a Limerick property that was uninhabitable.

In this instance, the charity ended up paying €2,500 a month in rent from July 2017 to March 2023 for a property no one could be housed in. A total of €172,000 was wasted throughout this 69-month period.

The property was later bought by PMVT for €250,000 in a controversial 2023 purchase that was examined by inspectors from the Charities Regulator.

According to the inspectors’ report, PMVT was originally going to buy this property itself, but decided not to when the soon-to-be owner approached Mr Doyle, saying he wanted to invest in housing. Mr Doyle suggested this individual could buy the property, renovate it and then PMVT could rent it.

The report confirms the thenowner of the Limerick property also has other properties in Dublin that he rents to PMVT.

However, the Charity Regulator’s report does not reveal the property was derelict and unsuitable for housing when PMVT rented it.

Planning files confirm the property was uninhabitable when PMVT agreed a 20-year lease in July 2017. Planning permission to make it suitable for human habitation was not made until April 2022 – more than five years after PMVT commenced paying rent.

A letter compiled on behalf of the owner by the architect states: ‘The site has been in a state of disrepair and vacant for a number of years? the existing flat roofs are currently leaking and in bad condition with damp spots internally in several locations.

‘Internally, the condition of the walls and floor is very bad with some minor fire damage in a section, mould prize in 2017 in other areas with damp spots throughout? there is a need of a full refreshment to make this building occupy-able.’

Despite the unlivable condition of the building, PMVT inexplicably agreed to rent it.

It is likely these funds, rather than going to house those in need, helped the owner to pay for the renovation of the property. According to the inspector’s report, the housing charity bought the property for €250,000 in March 2023.

However, PMVT did not have the €250,000 at the time as it was waiting for approved State funding.

Instead, according to the report, PMVT agreed to take a loan which was channelled through a trust firm business that the Limerick owner used to hold his property.

This loan was not approved by the board or the audit committee. There was no signed agreement and the money was paid into a separate charity to the McVerry Trust.

The cost of this loan, which the inspectors were unable to establish by the time they published their report, remains unknown.

The charity this week confirmed more than five years of rent had been paid on the Limerick building.

It said in a statement: ‘Our records show that Peter McVerry Trust entered a 20-year lease on a property in Limerick on the 1st July 2017 at a cost of €2,500 per month.

‘It is unclear to the current board and senior management why the lease was undertaken by the former CEO.’

A further transaction missed by inspectors involves a house in Athy, Co. Kildare that was purchased for €170,000 from long-term charity employee and head of IT Mark Durham and his wife Sandra in 2022, who live within 800 meters of the then-charity CEO Pat Doyle.

The three-bed property was later registered to PMVT on the land registry folio in January 2023. But the purchase, which was funded via Kildare County Council, has never been declared by PMVT as a related party transaction.

Approached by the MoS this week, Mr Durham, who always acted appropriately during the sale, confirmed he had sold the house to his employer.

‘That should have been [declared] because that went to the housing development people,’ he said when asked about PMVT’s failure to declare the deal as a related party transaction.

‘That was all officially done. It went to Kildare County Council, they paid the money to our solicitor. Everything was properly done? I’m surprised, actually.’

Mr Durham said the deal was problematic as PMVT was overwhelmed and unable to process purchases promptly.

‘It was a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. It took us months and months but I wasn’t going to complain because it was my company and it was a charity.

‘Everyone’s overworked. There were too many properties, so they just couldn’t be processed on time? we did nearly a favour, because I could have sold for much more because of the length of time it took to sell it. It went into the next bloody year and I could have got another five of six thousand more, but we wouldn’t do that,’ he told the MoS.

Asked if he was a friend of Mr Doyle, he said: ‘I know him from years ago. That’s about it. We would have known him for years – schools and things like that – but he was my boss’s boss.’

He said he declared the sale to Revenue and paid Capital Gains Tax of €7,639, and that he had originally bought the Athy property for €140,000 in 2004.

Asked about the charity’s failure to declare the deal, he said: ‘I know they are tidying up a lot of things. Maybe they missed my one.’

In their statement, PMVT said the Athy purchase had been at market value and had been ‘executed in a compliant manner’.

The charity admitted: ‘This purchase was not recorded as a related-party transaction, as it should have been, in the 2022 financial statements, and this omission forms part of historical weaknesses in accounting standards in PMVT.’

They added that the property was acquired ‘for a family experiencing homelessness,’ and has been used for this purpose since 2022.

Asked about its inspector’s failure to spot the deals disclosed today, a spokesperson for the Charities Regulator said: ‘The scope of the investigation was to review and identify, in a timely manner, the principal compliance and governance failures relating to charity law. The report makes it clear that the investigation “was not designed to identify all circumstances of noncompliance or other irregularity? that may exist”.

AHBRA also defended its report. A spokesperson said: ‘It was not a forensic audit, and the Act does not require AHBRA to conduct property condition assessments, planning reviews, commercial valuations or detailed examinations of individual transactions.’

THE SUPPLIER of controversial Garda gun holsters withdrawn from service due to safety concerns linked to the death of Detective Garda Colm Horkan was subsequently given a separate €28,000 contract to provide elements of Garda uniforms, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The payments – amounting to almost €28,179.30 over three months between January and March 2022 and which came after the holsters had been the subject of an internal Garda recall order – were last night described as an insult to the memory of Detective Garda Colm Horkan who was murdered in June 2020.

‘It is quite insulting to his family that a company who would have created these… holsters for use by An Garda Síochána were still being paid by the public,’ said PAC member and Labour Party TD, Eoghan Kenny, who had questioned former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris on the issue of holsters before he left the role in September.

Contacted by the MoS this week, the supplier rejected any connection with their holsters and the death of Detective Garda Colm Horkan, and a separate incident the week before which saw life-changing injuries to an officer outside the Israeli Embassy.

They also rejected any suggestions that they had received any preferential treatment from the garda in charge of the procurement of the holsters, Superintendent Liam White who this week, a court heard, was a neighbour of the supplier.

A court case taken by Detective Chief Superintendent Brian O’Reilly this week mentioned the supplier and Superintendent White, who was responsible for procuring the holsters between 2013 and 2020 when the contract was abandoned.

Det Chief Supt O’Reilly, who has been on sick leave, has taken a case against the former Garda Commissioner Drew Harris claiming that he has been penalised for making protected disclosures about the ‘unsafe’ holsters and other matters.

The MoS began publishing a series of articles in 2023 based on disclosures, along with documentation and photographs that had been submitted to Garda chiefs, former justice minister Helen McEntee and Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

We published protected disclosures that revealed how an officer – not Det Chief Supt O’Reilly – had initially given detailed warnings about holsters supplied to gardaí for Sig Sauer and Walther service weapons.

The former officer first warned of the dangers back in 2019, the year before Detective Garda Colm Horkan was murdered in June 2020.

This week, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s case was back in court after several previous hearings.

The case, before Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court, relates to claims that the Detective Chief Superintendent has been punished by Garda management for raising his concerns.

In his written evidence to the court, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said that holsters should be supplied by an established firearms accessories manufacturer.

This is the case now and was the case before the introduction of this specific supplier contract.

For example, the holster currently in use by gardaí is a King Cobra Evo5 model manufactured and supplied by international gun specialists for police forces around the world.

This and comparable holders are made from hard polymer designed to prevent accidental discharges and to prevent third-party access to the weapon within.

Judge O’Connor had read in detail Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s affidavit in which it was stated an official issue 9mm Luger calibre Walther semi-automatic pistol was accidentally discharged outside the Israeli ambassador’s residence, causing life-changing personal injury to the security garda who had been wearing one of the leather holsters in question.

The court heard that the Chief Superintendent had made several protected disclosures in recent years with one of them alleging that Garda personnel were endangered due to ‘unsafe and defective leather pistol holders’.

Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said in written evidence that [the supplier] had been engaged to provide leather pistol holsters as well as other accessories for carrying ammunition, including ammunition pouches.

He had considered it very unusual that they should have been procured from [this supplier] rather than a specialist firearms supplier.

He alleged that a forensic examination of the holster by a ballistics expert had reported ‘a serious safety concern which may result in serious injury’.

The ‘stark’ report had stated that when inserting the pistol into the new leather holster an accidental discharge was made possible by the creased leather lodging between the trigger and trigger-guard of the weapon.

In his court appearances, Det Chief Supt O’Reilly also told the court of separate concerns about the procurement of the ‘defective’ holsters.

‘It is my understanding that the individual who owns and operates the [supplying company], is a neighbour of Supt Liam White? who formerly had responsibility for Firearms Stores and Procurement until that function was transferred to me,’ Det Chief Supt O’Reilly stated.

The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that Supt White – who has held procurement roles at the helicopter, dog, mounted, diving and armoury units – lives within a few minutes’ walk of the supplier.

Det Chief Supt O’Reilly’s written evidence went on to say that he and another officer were informed that the man detained in relation to the shooting of Det Colm Horkan (Stephen Silver) had advised gardaí, while in custody, that he had been able to reach down and pull the gun from Det Horkan’s holster.

Det Chief Supt O’Reilly said he subsequently issued a safety advisory about the unsafe holsters.

Contacted this week at their home and subsequently by email, the supplier said: ‘At no stage has our holster been found defective.

‘Our holster, as you are well aware, has no connection with any injury suffered by a member of An Garda Síochána whilst on duty at the Israeli Embassy.

‘Likewise, our holster did not contribute in any way to the death of the late Detective Garda Colm Horkan,’ they said.

The 2013-2020 holster has repeatedly been dubbed ‘defective’ in the Oireachtas.

However, at a Public Accounts Committee hearing held this summer, then Garda Commissioner Drew Harris refused to agree to this description.

‘I am not going to apply the expression “defective holsters” to them, Commissioner Harris said when questioned by Mr Kenny.

‘This matter is the subject of a number of ongoing investigations by various bodies and they are matters before the courts as well. I cannot apply, and will not apply, the expression ‘defective holsters’ to them,’ the Commissioner added.

Commissioner Harris said he had not sought to recoup the money spent by taxpayers on the holsters when questioned by Mr Kenny.

‘I questioned Drew Harris on this in June of 2025 and he never made reference to the fact that [the suppliers] were still being paid for the first three months of 2022.

‘Drew Harris would have been well aware of that, and if he wasn’t? people who were below him were not letting him know,’ the Cork TD told the MoS.

‘It’s quite disturbing, considering that this was such an important question raised at the Public Accounts Committee in June, that the Commissioner didn’t feel it appropriate at that stage to tell me or any other members of committee – and the wider public – that [the supplier] continued to be paid after the controversy of the holsters came out.’

The same week that Det Horkan was murdered, a member of the Special Detective Unit (SDU) received life-altering injuries when his weapon accidentally discharged as he was on duty outside the home of the Israeli ambassador.

The SDU officer is now suing the force in a claim that relates to the suitability of the holster he had been issued.

A REVENUE officer fabricated evidence in a bid to secure a criminal conviction, an Irish Mail on Sunday investigation reveals.

In evidence prepared for court, the officer swore she had personally witnessed a Northern-registered jeep that had not been registered for Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT). But on some of the dates she claimed to have spotted the €80,000 vehicle driving in the Republic, the Revenue official was actually out of the country on a boozy trip to Benidorm.

Contacted by the MoS this week, the officer said she could not comment on the case as it is the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Revenue also confirmed that there is an ‘ongoing’ investigation into the matter.

Revenue’s entire case – which came before the courts in January – was built on the officer’s sworn testimony that she saw the UK-registered BMW X5 jeep south of the border on 12 occasions between June and October 2023.

The date of each purported sighting is listed in a sworn statement the officer signed as evidence for a criminal prosecution.

However, as social media images show, the officer was actually abroad on holiday on several of these dates. Three of the dates in question are consecutive days between September 22 and 24.

During this time the officer was actually on holidays in Spain. The raucous trip was chronicled on social media by an influencer who publicly posted a compilation video of the Revenue officer and her travelling companions.

Others on the trip also posted pictures in which the Revenue official was tagged. In one post showing the group leaving Ireland on a Ryanair flight on September 21, the Revenue officer is clearly identifiable in a bright summer dress.

The next day, she is photographed in a sun hat with a female companion on a scooter on Benidorm’s Playa De Levante beachfront.

‘Benidorm’s answer to Thelma & Louise,’ the photo caption reads.

But according to her falsified sworn statement, the Revenue official said she was in Ireland on the same day.

The following day, September 23, she is photographed in a black swim top and dark sunglasses partying at Benidorm’s Tiki Beach bar, a venue famed for its cocktails and live music.

This is also one of the dates that were listed in the official’s sworn statement in which she claimed to be at work in Ireland.

Images and videos from the same day show the official dancing under palm trees in the sunshine amid alcohol-strewn tables.

One image shows her pouring a large bottle of what appears to be clear spirits directly into the mouth of a man whose head she is tilting back with her other hand.

Another image from September 23 that she tagged herself in shows her posing with a man dressed as a goose with a pink top emblazoned with the words: ‘BEER LEADER.’

The following day – again when the official claimed to be in Ireland – the group are photographed dancing in the evening at a club.

One member of the group posted alongside the nightclub images: ‘What a place. Best holiday I’ve been on EVER.’

They then go on to joke about checking into a named residential treatment facility for addiction back in Ireland.

Further images from the trip show the group leaping into a rooftop pool and splashing in the sea.

On another date the officer purported to be in Ireland – July 18, 2023 – she posted images of her on a family trip abroad to Legoland.

Confronted at her home this week, the Revenue officer refused to comment.

‘I’m not allowed talk about this at the minute. It’s part of a Revenue investigation. I’m not allowed speak about this to anybody,’ she told the MoS.

When offered an opportunity to explain her actions, the official said: ‘I can’t talk about this at the minute, so I can’t. There’s a lot more here going on in this than you’ve been informed of basically. And I can’t talk about it, okay.’

When it was put to her that she had been caught out lying, the official replied: ‘I’m not caught in anything here – there’s a reason behind this. Okay, lookit, I have to talk to Revenue. Thanks very much.’

The officer declined to specify whether or not she is still employed by Revenue.

Details of the case are chronicled in correspondence – seen by the MoS – between the vehicle owner and Revenue. This includes the seizure notice provided after Revenue officers, attended by three gardaí, seized the vehicle in November of last year.

Tax laws empower Revenue officers to make such seizures if they form a ‘reasonable suspicion’ that an unregistered vehicle has been in the State for more than 30 days.

The significant power of seizure afforded to Revenue officers based on reasonable suspicion grounds alone has proven controversial in other cases.

But in this case, some of the evidence to back up that ‘reasonable suspicion’ was made up.

Providing false evidence is itself a potential criminal offence.

And under the Criminal Justice (Perjury and Related Offences) Act 2021, this can also apply to the signing and swearing of any false documents.

The Revenue official’s falsified statement could also be a breach of misfeasance of public office laws designed to ensure State officials do not abuse their position.

In her signed statement, dated March 6, 2024, the Revenue officer stated: ‘I am an Officer of Customs and Excise and Authorised Officer of the Revenue Commissioners.’

She also stated she had been ‘acting in that capacity on all dates mentioned in this statement’.

The legal document contained a standard clause in which the officer acknowledged that making a false statement is a potential crime.

‘This statement is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and I make it knowing that, if it is tendered in evidence, I shall be liable to prosecution if I have wilfully stated in it anything which I know to be false or do not believe to be true,’ it states.

Revenue’s prosecution of the BMW owner was based on this false evidence and was provided to the defence in advance of the court hearing.

However, the court never got a chance to hear this evidence. At the beginning of the hearing, a defence barrister raised an objection about a legal point relating to the Revenue’s failure to provide other documents in discovery. As a result, the judge struck out the case.

After that, the vehicle owner and her legal team subsequently complained to Revenue and provided evidence of the falsified official’s statement.

Despite the actions of its official, Revenue has refused to apologise to or compensate the car owner.

The tax collecting agency initially asked the owner to sign a document that would have indemnified all Revenue and State officials – up to and including the Minister for Finance – before the BMW would be returned.

However, the owner refused to sign the indemnity. The car was eventually returned to the owner – 17 months after it was seized.

According to the owner, the entire episode cost more than €7,000 in legal and other fees, money Revenue has refused to consider compensating.

In correspondence with the car owner, Revenue refused to accept that the attempted prosecution was ‘malicious’.

It also continues to insist its seizure of the BMW was ‘lawful.’

The owner continues to seek compensation and an apology from Revenue.

In a letter to Revenue chairman Niall Cody in April, the vehicle owner stated: ‘My concern now is this has never ever been taken seriously. Is this normal practice for your officers and department?

‘I was dragged through the courts completely unnecessarily. Left with a bill of €7,000 in legal fees. And yet I have never even received an apology from anyone for any of this,’ the owner followed up in June.

‘This officer was willing to commit perjury but for my barrister realising that evidence had been left out, is this alone not a matter of concern?’ The vehicle owner had previously been caught and fined by Revenue for driving a different unregistered vehicle, something they freely admit to and regret.

And they said that, having learned their lessons, they had sought to register the BMW as soon as it was purchased.

‘Last time I was wrong,’ they told the MoS. ‘But this time I was bending over backwards to try to get the car registered.’

In response to queries, a Revenue spokeswoman said: ‘This matter is subject to ongoing enquiries/investigations and Revenue is not in a position to comment on this matter at this point.

GARDAÍ are considering a criminal complaint about St John of God bosses who allowed a predatory paedophile to prey on vulnerable children in Africa for decades.

The complaint was submitted to the Garda National Protective Services Bureau (GNPSB) by the Irish Mail on Sunday this week after political and public figures continued to demand a criminal probe.

The calls for Garda intervention follow a near-decade long investigation by this newspaper into how the St John of God religious order covered up the Irish crimes of serial paedophile, Br Aidan Clohessy, allowing him to abuse freely in Africa.

Br Clohessy was branded an ogre by a trial judge and jailed in June for abusing six boys in Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s.

After this abuse occurred in Ireland, his order dispatched him to Malawi and made secret financial settlements with multiple victims here.

Now the GNPSB – led by Detective Chief Superintendent Colm Noonan – is assessing whether the complaint warrants a criminal investigation into the alleged reckless endangerment of children.

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Putting children at risk of abuse has been a crime since 2006 when the Criminal Justice Act 2006 was enacted.

Under Section 176 (2) of the Act it is a criminal offence for anyone in a position of authority or control of a child abuser to put a child at risk. It is also a crime to fail to take reasonable steps to protect a child from such a risk while knowing that the child is in such a situation.

Upon conviction, the offence carries a prison term of up to 10 years. Crucially it’s not actually necessary to prove abuse took place for a reckless endangerment prosecution.

The law was one of the recommendations of the 2005 Ferns Inquiry into the response by civil and Church authorities to abuse allegations in Wexford.

It was campaigned for by One in Four founder, Colm O’Gorman, a victim of Fr Seán Fortune – a paedophile priest who had been moved around by superiors who knew of the risk he posed.

Last night, Mr O’Gorman welcomed the possibility of a Garda investigation.

‘It’s a good thing in my view that it’s now been reported by the Irish Mail on Sunday to the gardaí and I hope the gardaí carry out a really, really thorough investigation and that a file does go to the DPP,’ he said.

‘Ultimately that’s going to be a decision for the DPP but, on the face of it, there would there would seem to be a prima facie case that needs to be investigated and if the evidence is there then it should be prosecuted.

‘From a read of the legislation it’s very clear that there is at least a case to be brought and a case to be answered,’ Mr O’Gorman added.

‘There needs to be accountability for the fact that Br Clohessy was allowed to continue in positions of authority, that he was allowed to continue to have access to children who he continued to abuse for decades after the order was made aware of it,’ Mr O’Gorman said.

‘There needs to be accountability for that and that should include criminal accountability.’

Labour Justice spokesman Alan Kelly also called for speedy action.

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‘Given that a complaint has now been made to gardaí, it is imperative that they investigate in a speedy manner, given how serious the issue is,’ he said.

Others who have called for a criminal inquiry include Sinn Féin education spokesperson Darren O’Rourke, former Bernardos CEO, Fergus Finlay and Kindernothilfe (KNH) – a prominent Christian charity in Germany that funds St John of God in Malawi. The complaint is also backed by all of the Irish victims for whom Clohessy was jailed for abusing – and other victims in Africa who have already received settlements.

Any Garda investigation will consider evidence that St John of God superiors knew Br Clohessy was a risk when they left him in Africa. This will include publicly-available records such as a 2015 church audit into the order.

The audit by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) confirms St John of God superiors received many historical Irish abuse complaints about Br Clohessy as he was left in Malawi.

Other readily-available evidence highlights the free access Br Clohessy had to children in Africa, despite these complaints at home.

This includes a 2010 TG4 documentary on Br Clohessy’s work with children in Malawi. The documentary aired on national TV even as Br Clohessy’s superiors in Ireland continued to receive historical complaints about him.

The role of those who knew – or ought to have known – that children in Africa would be at risk from Br Clohessy will also be examined in any investigation.

This will include – but is not limited to – the current head of the St John of God order, Br Donatus Forkan.

It was Br Forkan who first dispatched Br Clohessy to Malawi and left him there as secret settlements were made to victims back in Ireland.

No one in Malawi was told of these settlements or Br Clohessy’s child-abusing past as he was left free to prey on street children.

The St John of God order then conspired to keep Br Clohessy’s child abuse under wraps after superiors finally withdrew him from Africa in 2012.

This occurred as the Vatican launched a Canonical Inquiry into Br Clohessy and gardaí began investigating Irish complaints.

When the MoS first travelled to track down victims in Malawi in 2017, neither the Vatican nor the St John of God order had ever acted to establish the extent of any abuse Br Clohessy carried out there.

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Our investigation uncovered numerous men who had been collected from the streets by Br Clohessy when they were children.

Many were horrifically abused – and although it admits no liability – the St John of God order has recently begun settling civil cases taken on behalf of these victims in Ireland. As many as 60 such cases from Africa have so far emerged – with 20 already settled.

Others in Malawi also told the MoS of the unfettered access to children that Br Clohessy enjoyed.

Br Clohessy’s personal cook, Maxwell Chirwa, for example, confirmed that a garage at Brother Aidan’s home had been converted and used to house boys.

‘There was a place where Brother Aidan was keeping them. Built at the back where the garage was. He put some rooms inside. They put the beds there,’ he told the MoS in 2017.

Mr Chirwa said this converted garage had been built in 2006.

‘It was in 2006. The children were sleeping there inside, yes.’

He added that children remained living there for ‘many years – some of them until they finished school.’

Mr Chirwa also said Br Forkan knew of Br Clohessy’s living arrangements with children because he had stayed himself in the compound during visits.

‘Yes When they were building the garage he [Donatus] knew.’

Harrison Chilale – the then Clinical Director for St John of God in Malawi who worked under Brother Clohessy from the beginning – also confirmed these arrangements.

‘They would stay at the Brother’s house. I think Brother Aidan had some space where they would eat, wash and clean themselves up,’ he said. ‘The inside activities and behaviours I don’t know. But I knew he kept children – I think up to 10 sometimes in one roof. There were a group of children he was keeping there.’

No one in Malawi was concerned about these arrangements because they remained unaware that Br Clohessy’s order had received and

settled repeated abuse complaints.

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That remained the case even after Br Clohessy suddenly left Malawi overnight in 2012 without warning or explanation, having spent two decades there.

In Ireland, the St John of God order’s charitable services are managed via a corporate structure headed by a parent company called the St John of God Hospitaller Services Group.

As head of the order, Br Forkan remains a director of this company.

This weekend, a spokesperson for the group said it ‘recognises the importance of and is committed to protecting all vulnerable people against any form of abuse.’

‘We operate a zero tolerance approach to all types of abuse for children and adults in receipt of services and supports. We have rigorous policies and procedures to ensure the safeguarding of everyone we encounter, and to ensure that they are supported and protected. We are committed to timely reporting of allegations. We support anyone with concerns about the safety of a child or adult to take immediate action by contacting the appropriate authorities or the designated safeguarding personnel in our services.’

However, the St John of God order itself – and leaders such as Br Forkan – have never publicly acknowledged or addressed the situation in Malawi.

That remained the case this week as a spokesperson for the order declined to comment.

Instead the order said it ‘encourages anyone who has experienced hurt to seek support and talk with the authorities.

An Garda Síochána’s free confidential 24/7 Child Sexual Abuse Reporting number is 1800 555 222 or email GNPSB_SCMU@garda.ie

Independent advice and help can be accessed at Towards Healing – Freephone – 1800 303 416 / 0800 096 3315 (Northern Ireland) / 085 802 2859 (hearing Impaired) / email info@towardshealing.ie

Contact the author on michaelofarrell@protonmail.com

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Clohessy’s access to children was evident

THE Irish Mail on Sunday first travelled to Malawi in October 2017 to investigate whether Br Clohessy had contact with children.

We did so after we confirmed that his superiors in Ireland had secretly settled child abuse cases with Irish victims before dispatching him to Africa.

It was immediately evident, in recorded interviews we conducted back then, that Br Clohessy had not only had unrestricted and unsupervised access to children – but he had housed them at his compound.

According to those we spoke to, he housed many street children in a specially-built garage at his St John of God residence. He would also bring other children home from the streets to wash them during his lunch break.

Much of this contact with children occurred after 2006 when the reckless endangerment of children became a crime in Ireland.

And it occurred as Br Clohessy’s superiors back home continued to cover up the fact that they knew he represented a child abuse risk.

Meanwhile, no one at the services run by St John of God in Malawi was ever informed of the settlements Br Clohessy’s superiors were making to victims back home.

The first person we found during that first trip to Malawi was John Simwawa, who has since died. John was 22 when we met him. He told us that from the age of about ten he began being collected by Br Clohessy at Mzuzu’s Coffee Den – a central location where street children often hung out.

That places John in contact with Br Clohessy from 2005 onwards. He told us:

‘Br Aidan used to come and collect about 15 of us and bring us to his house. He had a pickup with a canopy. He forced us to take a bath. He would pick us up in his pickup truck, make sure we took bath, give us food and then he would take us back to the street. But there were other boys who were sleeping there.

‘There were four boys who were staying with Br Aidan. I cannot remember their ages but they were younger than me.’

John spoke of being beaten by Br Clohessy as he washed.

He said: ‘He would make sure we thoroughly cleaned ourselves and he would stand there and watch all the boys.

‘He would beat us to make us wash. He would watch us and he had a stick. We were frightened. He would hit us on the buttocks.’

During our first trip to Malawi, several other former street children, spoke on condition of anonymity, about their time with Br Clohessy.

One said he first met Br Clohessy in 2002 and ‘grew up with him for maybe 12 years’.

He added: ‘He took us from the street when I was 12. He took us to his house where he was staying near the bishop.’

(The St John of God compound where Br Clohessy lived is beside Mzuzu cathedral and bishop’s residence.)

Another man told of being taken from the streets by Br Clohessy when he was aged nine – something that happened repeatedly until 2008.

‘Especially during the lunch hour he was taking us to his house and doing the same thing. He was giving us new clothes. He was doing this maybe like three times a week.’

The former street child said Br Clohessy would give him clothes to try on after he had showered.

This continued until 2008 when he went to live with another white man who promised to take care of him.

Another former street child said he met Br Clohessy in 2007 when he was 13, adding: ‘I first met Br Aidan when I was in primary school. I needed support with my school. That’s when he started helping me. I was in primary school.’

‘He found me in the street. At that time he was staying at the Formation house. He took me there, then I had a shower and he gave me some food and he gave me a place so I can stay.’

This individual said that at this time there were ten to 15 other children living in Br Clohessy’s compound.

Another man told the MoS he started being brought to Br Clohessy’s house at the age of seven, with his two brothers, and stopped in 2007.

He spoke of being washed by Br Clohessy ‘every day, two times a day’, saying: ‘He was using sobo [soap] to wash us.’

He confirmed that Br Clohessy would wash the genitals of those present.

By the time we made our second trip to Malawi, in September last year, Br Clohessy’s order had begun settling civil cases taken by his African victims in the Irish courts.

Those taking these cases have gone through a vetting process and been interviewed by experts and psychiatrists. They say they were brutally abused and raped as children having been taken off the streets by Br Clohesssy.

St John of God and its provincial, Br Donatus Forkan, have never addressed or acknowledged the cover up that allowed Br Clohessy to prey freely on children in Malawi as they covered up his crimes back home.