{"id":200997,"date":"2025-11-26T10:15:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/200997\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T10:15:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T10:15:12","slug":"more-than-50-of-assessed-not-for-profit-housing-bodies-non-compliant-with-rules-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/200997\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 50% of assessed not-for-profit housing bodies \u2018non-compliant\u2019 with rules \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than half the not-for-profit housing bodies <\/a>that underwent regulatory assessment were \u201cnon-compliant\u201d with sectoral rules, said housing supervisors in a new report calling for improvements in the way many groups are run.<\/p>\n

The 2024 annual report from the Approved Housing Bodies <\/a>Regulatory Authority <\/a>set out the need for action in the areas of governance and risk, finance, property and asset management and tenant management. <\/p>\n

The authority oversees hundreds of not-for-profit approved housing bodies (AHBs<\/a>) that receive public funds to provide affordable housing to tenants. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Top finance official raises risks to public finances from surge in housing body dealsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

The sector spans 438 registered AHBs, which manage 68,000 homes with \u20ac1.95 billion in annual rent and close to \u20ac10 billion in assets. The best-known AHB is the Peter McVerry Trust<\/a>, which hit a deep financial crisis in 2023 that necessitated a \u20ac15 million State rescue to avert collapse. <\/p>\n

Despite the prevalence of noncompliance, authority chief executive Fergal O\u2019Leary said there was a \u201cbig distinction\u201d between housing bodies working towards compliance and the \u201cintensive monitoring\u201d under way at the McVerry Trust after investigations into its affairs. <\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these AHBs <\/a>are in an investigation,\u201d he said when asked whether there was any reason for public concern about the findings of noncompliance. <\/p>\n

The authority\u2019s annual report sets out the findings of 33 statutory assessments of AHBs <\/a>in 2024, groups that collectively control some 43 per cent of all dwellings in the sector. However, such groups were not named in the report. <\/p>\n

None of the 33 achieved a fully \u201ccompliant\u201d outcome, but 15 were deemed \u201ccompliant with improvements\u201d, which means they met regulatory standards but were issued with recommendations to make improvements in some areas. <\/p>\n

Another 13 housing bodies, comprising 40 per cent of those assessed, were found to be \u201cnon-compliant working towards compliance\u201d. Such bodies did not meet regulatory standards and faced a full reassessment of their operations within 12 months. <\/p>\n

The remaining five AHBs<\/a>, comprising 15 per cent of the assessed bodies, were given an assessment of \u201cnoncompliance statutory action required\u201d. They were required by law to submit a plan setting out a path to full compliance. <\/p>\n

\u201cMany AHBs, particularly smaller organisations, would benefit from more structured approaches to identifying and managing organisational risks,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Leary. <\/p>\n

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\u201cFor growing AHBs, financial risk management <\/a>and stress testing should continue to be enhanced to underpin growth and resilience,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

In a separate report last year, inspectors sent into the McVerry Trust by the authority found serious lapses in governance, financial management, internal controls and the handling of conflicts of interest. <\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Leary told the D\u00e1il public accounts committee last week that progress made by the trust towards compliance was \u201cslower\u201d than required. \u201cIf material noncompliance persists, further escalation, including cancellation of registration, remains possible,\u201d he told the committee.<\/p>\n

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Replying to questions, he acknowledged recent advances by the trust but called for more progress. \u201cThis can\u2019t go on forever, so we\u2019re looking for that progress to be accelerated in the next couple of months,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He recognised assurances from the new trust board and noted discussions about future structures. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe organisation has been struggling with its current structure to be compliant … But they\u2019re also looking strategically at where they\u2019re going,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than half the not-for-profit housing bodies that underwent regulatory assessment were \u201cnon-compliant\u201d with sectoral rules, said housing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[79,18,91223,111023,8752,19,17,18888],"class_list":{"0":"post-200997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-housing-agency","11":"tag-housing-commission","12":"tag-housing-crisis","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland","15":"tag-land-development-agency"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115615480381713459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}