The Workers’ Party has called for Dublin City Council to seek to have a Committee of Inspection appointed to oversee the liquidation of Inner City Helping Homeless (ICHH) to ensure the needs of homeless people are central to the process.

WP Dublin Central representative, Claire O’Connor, said: “The High Court today (1st November) appointed a liquidator from accountancy firm KPMG to wind up ICHH on behalf of the Charities Regulator. The ICHH organisation is believed to have assets of a value of approximately €700,000.”

“A Committee of Inspection is a group of people who represent the interests of creditors of a company that is being wound up by liquidation. The circumstances of this liquidation are somewhat unique in that they result from an inability to appoint a board to oversee the continued operation of ICHH. This failure was, at least in part, due to remaining board members being warned by Gardai that there were credible threats to their safety.”

“In these circumstances, and in order to ensure the assets of ICHH are in the first instance safeguarded to assist the homeless in Dublin, I am calling on Dublin City Council to petition for a Committee of Inspection to be established and that its work is carried out in a transparent manner. This is to ensure the maximum amount of funds are delivered to provide professional homeless services in Dublin”

“Our concern would be that both claims by other creditors and professional fees incurred during the liquidation process could result in the homeless losing out.”

O’Connor added: “I believe the current investigations into the operation of ICHH must bring some clarity to the issue of who knew what when and what actions they took to protect vulnerable service users. Surely now as a society we have learned that where such serious abuse allegations are made, particularly in relation to vulnerable groups, action must be taken to assist possible victims rather than any attempt be made to ‘circle the wagons’ which can allow abuse to continue or cause further harm to the alleged victims.”