A former Lord Mayor of Dublin is to be appointed interim chairman of the charity Inner City Helping Homeless following the death of its founder.
Christy Burke, a Dublin North Inner City Independent councillor, said he was approached on Friday night by management officials of the charity.
It comes after chairman David Hall stepped down citing threats to his personal safety, in the wake of the death of the charity's founder and former chief executive Anthony Flynn 11 days ago.
Mr Burke said he was “honoured” to take up the position, as Mr Flynn was a “tireless” campaigner on behalf of the homeless and a close friend.
An extraordinary general meeting will be held in the coming days to ratify Mr Burke’s appointment.
'Carry on the work'
Speaking on Saturday night, Mr Burke said: “I will carry on as best as I can the work of Cllr Flynn who fought long and hard to raise awareness around the homeless not only of Dublin but of the country. He was a close friend and I want to honour this man’s tireless work.
“The interim position has no remuneration package of any sort which I wanted. I will be working on the ground in an outreach capacity at night time as Cllr Flynn did.
“Several people within the charity have agreed to stay on to help me with the running of the charity which I am pleased about.”
In a statement on Saturday evening, ICHH said: “Following the resignation of David Hall as chairman of ICHH we can confirm that as of Friday the 27th of August, Cllr Christy Burke PC has agreed to take up the position of chairman of ICHH for a short period of time.
“There will be an EGM held in the near future and further updates will follow from that meeting.”
Former charity chief executive Mr Flynn died in tragic circumstances last week. It had emerged the week before that Mr Flynn had been suspended from ICHH and that gardaí were investigating allegations against an employee of the charity.
On Friday night, Mr Hall said following his stepping down as charity chairman: “Sadly, I was advised by gardaí that due to threats to my own personal safety, it is not safe for me at this time to attend the office. I’ve been unable to attend the office since Anthony’s passing.
“As a result, we are faced with a situation where proper governance or support is impacted,” he said, adding: “I can no longer fulfil my role as chair and trustee.”
