Minister of State Frank Fahey has defended his multi-million euro property portfolio, which includes houses and apartments in Ireland and the US. Insisting repeatedly that he had complied with all ethical rules, he said he was not concerned about the possibility that his affairs could be investigated by the Standards in Public Office Commission.
Mr Fahey told RTÉ's Five Seven Live yesterday that he had "fully complied" with his ethical requirements.
"In fact, I have been very scrupulous in complying with my ethical requirements in respect of my property and everything else. I am absolutely satisfied that I have done nothing wrong.
"If we are to go down the road that some people are suggesting, then nobody who is in business or nobody who is developing a property can get involved in politics if somebody like me can't be involved in developing a property.
"My son is full-time in the business, my daughter is part-time and my wife is involved . . . I have probably 90 per cent borrowing on what properties I have, so I am absolutely satisfied."
Mr Fahey continued: "It built up over the years in a very transparent way. There are quite a number of people involved in it."
The Minister has denied that he was a part-owner of a hairdressing salon company in Moscow .
In his declaration under the Ethics in Public Office Act, Mr Fahey has revealed that he owns properties in Galway city and county, Dublin, France, Belgium, Portugal and the US. In Ireland, he owns or has shares in shops and development land, six houses and 10 apartments.
The Green Party says it is researching Mr Fahey's business interests and it intends to lodge a complaint to the Standards in Public Office Commission. So far, however, the commission has exhibited no interest in beginning an inquiry of its own. Receipt of a complaint does not mean a full-scale inquiry will take place.
Having served as minister for the marine from January 2000, Mr Fahey was demoted to minister of state by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in 2002.
Mr Fahey also talked yesterday about his term as minister for the marine, during which he was involved in a row about a scheme that restored fishing tonnage to fishermen who had lost their boats before the introduction of an EU trawler register in 1990.
Two of his Galway West constituents received 75 per cent of the tonnage available under the scheme, and a number of others were excluded, including Danny Byrne of Bruckless, Co Donegal, who lost his father and brother and three crewmen when their vessel the Skifford sank off Donegal in 1981.
Mr Byrne, Mr Fahey said, had applied over a year late for the replacement tonnage and he could not be accommodated because EU rules had changed in the meantime. Mr Byrne had said he had received no prior notification of the compensation.
Mr Fahey also rejected charges that compensation had been paid.
"You could not sell or trade the tonnage, therefore, the tonnage had no value. That was the condition that we put on it for the simple reason that we did not want to give people an asset that they could sell. We simply wanted to give those fishermen the right to go back out to fish."
