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THE PETER MCVERRY Trust will receive approximately €4 million in the first tranche of emergency funding from the Government to ensure the organisation can continue to provide its services, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien has confirmed.
It was confirmed on Tuesday that the Government is to provide up to €15 million in funding to the charity.
It comes after the housing charity found itself in significant financial difficulties this autumn.
The funding is being provided on the condition of significant reform within the charity.
The Peter McVerry Trust has given a commitment that improved management and budgetary processes are being put in place.
The funding, which was secured by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien on an exceptional basis, will be provided monthly between December and March.
Speaking to reporters today, O’Brien said the first phase of that payment will be made, later this week the Minister said.
He confirmed the first tranche of funding is approximately €4 million.
“My priority is the service users, is the hundreds of people who are assisted by the Peter McVerry Trust every single day,”
The Minister said the Government has “full oversight” of what is happening at the charity.
“There’s investigations in place … there will be reorganisation and restructuring,” he said.
“Those payments are made on behalf of the taxpayer to support the services, so there are conditions attached, which at this stage I can’t go through because I am writing to the Trust today outlining that.”
When asked if there needs to be any change at board level, McGrath said: “We’re not at that stage yet. We’ve a full review underway and we have external consultants in the Peter McVery Trust at the moment.”
The Peter McVerry Trust is due to provide a detailed plan for the future by February next year, a Government spokeswoman said earlier this week.
In August, the charity said it was experiencing cashflow pressures that were “more acute than would traditionally be the case”, even allowing for the summer period.
In October, its chief executive Francis Doherty resigned amid the controversy.
Doherty had been the chief executive of the charity since June 2023, taking over from Pat Doyle, who was at the organisation for almost 19 years.
Inspectors were appointed by the Approved Housing Bodies Regulatory Authority to the Peter McVerry Trust and the charity was engaging with them.
The Department of Housing, which normally does not fund any homeless service directly, provides funding to local authorities towards the operational costs of homeless accommodation and related services.
With reporting by Jane Matthews and Press Association
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Unfortunately attacks on paramedics are all too common. Most probably go unreported as staff know nothing will most likely be done about it.
They should have knocked the brass monkey out, sickening!!!
Oh yeah. A running kick in the bollix. Better than any i v.
They should have left him in the toilet. The sooner the better a bad batch of heroine comes and kills all that sc0m.
So, the country is up in arms over equality arguments at the moment, but when it comes to someone suffering from a drug addiction you wish him dead?
Paramedics are exposed in the community setting without
the back up of security if they were hospital based,maybe
it’s time to protect the people that protect us.
They maybe aware of the risks when they take the role but
they deserve some protection before a incident happens,if
they are injured doing their role regardless of alcohol/drugs
taken the courts should give judicial sentences.
You know what that junkie needs? A special room for him and his mates to shoot up in comfort and safety so this doesn’t happen again. I mean how undignified is taking your drugs in a toilet, very unhygienic too. Only thing is when he needs a cigarette he will have to step outside as smoking in the work place is banned and he could get a fine if he smokes indoors. So to recap, it will be ok to inject his highly illegal drugs indoors in comfort but will have to smoke his legal tobacco product outside…….. Sorry I nearly bit my tongue in two! Should have left the junkie to die, a lot less hassle for everyone
Lad’s i see your point about junkies , i used have the same mentality. but it’s not till someone close to you dies from it, that you realize they were like us at some stage, playing gaa or running around the green with them or robbing your old man’s fags. Unfortunatley these lads went to far at some stage and are gripped by heroine and some desperately try to get off it and can’t it just lure’s them back in every time. I bet ye that some of ye idolised people like hendrix, miles davis, kurt cobain when ye were growing up, maybe still do to this day they all had the same illness as the lad’s on the street. Just remember they were like you once..
it should be the dealers, the main guy’s, ye’r anger and disgust should be directed at.
I’ve seen what EMTs have to put up with, and have worked alongside enough to know that it’s a difficult and dangerous job.
This clip, I feel, fails to capture the risk or challenge of the job. It’s just a boring, yet unfortunately all to common, scenario that they would face, and not gripping enough for TV, at least as a promo clip.
So, this is a trailer for a new TV series. ‘Paramedics – Starts Thursday on 3′.
Pure sensationalist nonsense.
Nothing actually happened there. The guy wasn’t ‘aggressive’. They’re just hyping it up to create drama where drama doesn’t exist.
I mean seriously.
The guy comes out of it, realizes he’s heading to the hospital where the cops might be waiting and wants to get away. Completely normal response under the circumstances. He doesn’t hit anyone, he doesn’t get violent, he just asserts himself.
If that clip is anything to go by then I’ll be skipping ‘Paramedics’.
Just more over hyped sensationalist rubbish from TV3.
So Tommy, tell us, what do you do for a living??? Clearly not in the front line of life anyway!! Have you ever been physically assaulted for merely doing your job??
You obviously don’t appreciate that Irish made documentaries on Emergency services will always be carefully edited and not show the real graphic content like US made shows. We are a small nation after all. The HSE pen pushers have the final say on what can and can not be shown in any programme like this. The clip is merely a teaser to get people to watch. Secondly, it is an opinion like yours leads to an impression that firefighters, paramedics, Gardai. RNLI and coastguard personnel have a cushy number! Response calls in a population of a few million won’t match the level of activity shown in the UK and US made reality shows, but the attitudes of drunken, drugged and disturbed people are the same the world over. Thankfully access to lethal weapons isn’t as prolific here. Only lethal weapon here is your poor opinion!! That’s my opinion!! Keep safe Tommy, you may need a paramedic!
I work in the emergency services and he is absolutly right!
I wonder how you would handle a junkie with an open vein and blood dripping out while he is trying to free his arm possibly causing you blood risk . Open your eyes man . Your typical of the people who come on here to say something just to get a reaction . It’s sad and ill informed . How about a little praise for the medics who tried to help this man and continued to do so after he became abusive and violent .
Was he abusive and violent? I dont think so
I didn’t say these people have a cushy number.
I merely highlighted the fact that the clip is sensationalist.
The guy isn’t being violent, he isn’t being abusive.
He just wants to go on his way.
He’s probably in shock too.
I didn’t say you did. I said your opinion can lead to a belief that it’s cushy. I’m 29 years dealing with people who would punch you in the blink of an eye. Aggression takes on many forms. Watch the programme and see if it is as you suspect, tv hyped up! As I said, these shows never show the real side of pre hospital care.
You kind of have a point there, however it’s not as straight forward as that. The behaviour you see in this clip is a side effect of reversing the overdose.
If you watch the clip again you hear the AP asking his partner to see if the guards were still there not to arrest him but to compel him to go to the hospital.
The reason for that is simple, the reversal agent the patient was given, blocks the effects of heroin but it also prevents the patient from getting high again for a specific timeframe, this pushes them towards a withdrawal state and they may try to repeatedly get high, when the naloxone wears of, they are hit with a overwhelming dose of heroin from there previous attempts and they can die.
I largely think that it is unfair for anyone, lay people or other practitioners to call this sensationalist in a way, it’s all about perspective, what we seen on the clip in a relaxed state can be perceived differently when your in the thick of it,
I’ve had patients like this kick of properly because of this, so it’s reasonable to give the AP and Paramedic some latitude on there perception initially.
Should of left him in there.one less waster to deal with
Comments like leaving him in the spot he was found to more than likely die are typical uneducated garbage. Perhaps we should instead focus on how they became addicted and what we are doing as a society to stop the real criminals who prey on their addiction and supply their fix.
I work in Dublin City centre and pass by numerous addiction treatment centres and see the drug dealers openly selling and pressuring them into buying drugs.
If their was a publican selling Alcohol outside an AA meeting their would be uproar but society turns a blind eye to drug addiction.
Focus on the reason they got addicted and who is supplying this addiction and perhaps we might make some progress.
Can’t believe you got red thumbed for that AlanH, goes to show what sort of world we live in now I suppose (the I’m Ok, feck you one), still when one of their loved ones are found in a Jaks with needle marks tracked up their arms or nose rotted from the inside or just plain dead maybe, just maybe they will wake up (unless of course their the low life sc#mbag dealers)
It’s very easy to just blame or walk by but to try understand the real underlined problem we have with addiction is a lot harder.
I know people who would condem drug addicts to death but at the same time don’t have an issue with buying coke on a weekend or get completely wasted on beer to the point of being carried home.
I’m pretty sure most assaults towards emergency services are alcohol related rather than drug related And before I get jumped on NO I don’t condone aggression against emergency services. I know first hand what can and dose happened to our Emergency men and women on the front line.
Did Brendan O’Connor get a new job as a paramedic?!
Bríd…seriously like. Das de way we all talk down here like. Noddin are all wrong wir it. Keep your envy to yourself like. Up de rebels.
Why did he have an IV line in the first place given that it’s an obvious the
minute the Naloxone kicks in that he would not be going to any hospital.
Maybe something else warranted IV but your certainly putting your self at risk in this situation.
We all agree that those addicted to drugs and who we come in contact with on a regular basis in the course of our work cause us problems ( for the record I have been injected with heroin by one such addict ) but those with alcohol on board cause us and the ED staff just as much and in many cases more hassle and aggravation than most . Again in my own experience ( 38 years of it working on the front line) I have been assaulted more times than I care to remember including been hit with a bottle.
I guess we can all agree that our job can be a difficult one but each and every patient that we come in contact with deserves our total professionalism and respect and that the best possible and highest standard of care we can provide. Unfortunately sometimes they decide that after we arrive that it’s not what they want and that’s ok by us.
We all need to continue to educate ourselves regarding our terminology and the way we sometimes address some of these human beings.
I never yet met a person who when they were in school and asked what they wanted to be when they were grown up replied , a junkie , a drug addict , an alcoholic , a lunatic, a psycho, a murderer , mentally disturbed .
They are our patients and the reason we have our jobs.
I agree with you Dave. We have to stop labelling people as the junkie, the alcoholic etc, although they are very obvious in how they carry on, it’s a symptom of deeper issues. We have an atrocious attitude to mental health issues in this society and that’s the issue.
It’s very difficult to critique this clip, it’s a snap shot, from what they are saying it appears he was in respiratory arrest, perhaps the absorption rate was significantly reduced and that is common in periarrest and the cannula was placed in preparation for either iv naloxone or for a full resuscitation.
Wether it is sensationalist or not it highlights a very real danger with opioid abuse and reversal, namely the confusion, agitated state They wake to. The real danger is the naloxone has a half life and the heroin may have still been active or that he would have started to shoot up more as they can’t get high again for up to 12 hours and he would unintentionally OD again.
Btw the narrative was not being directed at you Dave there, it’s just to give the lay people a better understanding of what happens with naloxone
Well said and fair play for your service
Any violence towards Ambulance crew is unacceptable however I wonder how many people who are drunk become aggressive to the Ambulance crew and yet this incident gets highlitghed because the person is an injecting drug user.
Broad daylight. In Cork.
It’s not only in Cork though, it’s problem every where, ambulance crews should have access to those shirt cams, I bet that would be a big eye opener.
Agreed Alan,
The only problem might be getting people to review the footage.
Because to do so would be to examine the proof that there is a crisis.
We all owe a tremendous gratitude to the paramedics who have saved countless lives in sometimes difficult situations. Not given enough praise or even renumeration for what they actually have to do
I’ve the upmost respect for paramedics and A&E staff. I’ve seen first hand the abuse and violence they have to put up with In Hospitals like the Mater and James from junkies and drunks. If anyone needs danger money for their job it’s these wonderful people whom do such a great job helping to save lives.
He wasnt really being violent at all. They gave an opioid antagonist which counteracts the effects of heroin… of course he wont want to go to hospital nobody does. Anyone else who just regained consciousness probably wouldnt go either. It looks like this is being hyped up now like a soap. No need for it. If the cameras were installed unknowingly i think it would be a different story.
Tis himself. Hes probably had to endure hours in a and e before and didn’t want to go through that again.
Terrible waste of resourses when it could have been used else where.
Isn’t our EMS service for everyone regardless of class ?
People are saying let him on his way. What happens when the naloxone wears off and the herion kicks in again depending on how much he had taken. And he has gone up a lane way and he dies. The same people will be giving out about that. There is a reason medics do everything.
I don’t think that’s how it works Alan.I was in Germany a while back and the council’s provide a place where addicts can go and get a shower and use e-mail and some food and coffee and talk to social workers and take their drugs in a safe environment. I think our approach where it’s taken in a hidden area away from the authorities is flawed and may cost lives. At the end of the day it may cost less to have these centers rather than have an ambulance out of circulation and all its accrued costs.
Seemed peaceful enough to me. He said he didn’t want to go and the ambulance crew started shouting at him. If he doesn’t want to go so be it.
No other people are there to help when you are need but these men and women but still they get treated like this.
Should have left him die in his own puke he is going to die from that shit anyway
Always happens in Cork ,poor poor Cork…….
Probably shooting up in the jacks in mcdonalds happening alot these days..happened in cork to suprising enough the government seems to think there’s only heroin in dublin…its people like him thats turning towns all around ireland into dumps…
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