After five days of silence, Niall Collins has responded to a report carried in the investigative news site The Ditch about the purchase of a site in Patrickswell, Co Limerick, by his wife Eimear O’Connor in 2008.
The Ditch has made its name for intensively detailed investigations into the property dealings of elected representatives. It is a niche area but its investigations have been highly impactful and have resulted in the downfall of two ministers of state, Robert Troy and Damien English, in the past year.
The website has had Limerick TD and Fianna Fáil Minister of State Niall Collins in its sights for weeks. It has focused primarily on a site owned by the council which was bought by his wife in 2008.
Like many of these investigations into property transactions, the issues revolve around fine detail and specific events. In this instance, the focus is a decision taken by councillors at a meeting of the Bruff Local Electoral Area Committee in January 2007.
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At the meeting, councillors agreed to a proposal put forward by a senior council engineer to sell a parcel of land in the village of Patrickswell owned by the council. The meeting was told that a number of parties had made enquiries about it. The engineer said the site would be placed on the open market. The seven councillors present did not object to the land being sold.
One of the councillors was Niall Collins. His wife, Eimear O’Connor, was one of those parties who had made enquiries about the site. She had written to the council through her solicitors in December 2006.
The site was subsequently advertised and sold on the open market with Ms O’Connor purchasing it.
As Pat Leahy reports Collins issued a statement last night in a bid to clarify the matter.
The statement is short. It said the sale was completed in September 2008 in a “transparent and open” manner.
Collins notes he was no longer a councillor at the time having been elected as a TD.
He adds when the council executive recommended to the Bruff LEA Committee in January 2007 that the property should be put up for sale, “neither I nor my wife had any pecuniary or beneficial interest in the property. There was no disagreement to the executive’s recommendations.”
But as Pat notes in his reporting, the statement is unlikely to draw a line under the matter.
The reference to “pecuniary or beneficial interest” uses a phrase contained in Section 177 of the Local Government Act. It states that a member who has a pecuniary or other beneficial interest should disclose the nature of his or her interest, or the fact of a connected person’s interest at the meeting before it is discussed. The person must withdraw from the meeting for so long as the matter is being discussed.
The import of Collins’ statement is clear. It is his view that the letter written by Eimear O’Connor to the council in December 2006 expressing an interest in the site did not amount to a pecuniary or beneficial interest.
His view is likely to be challenged by members of the Opposition. People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has already requested time from the Ceann Comhairle so Collins can answer questions. Murphy will be out on the plinth this morning outlining what those questions are.
The Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education will find himself under considerable pressure to provide additional explanations.
Housing for All gets an extra €1 billion
The Coalition has been particularly stung by criticism in recent weeks of an underspend of €1 billion in the housing budget. Ironically, the latest initiative to address this long-running crisis – perhaps the longest in recent political history – has a budget of €1 billion.
As Jennifer Bray and Naomi O’Leary report this morning, Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien will bring a number of memos to Cabinet to expand vacant properties grants, provide subventions to builders where they develop cost-rental apartments and cut the cost of building homes.
Speaking in Brussels on Monday, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it was “difficult to say for sure how many additional houses will be built” on top of already forecast rates of between 25,000 and 30,000 homes annually, but that the Government believed the measure would help it reach its target of 30,000 completions this year.
Time will tell if this will be the case.
Abortion memo will come before Cabinet
Jennifer Bray has led the reporting on the barrister Marie O’Shea’s review of abortion laws which comes before Cabinet this morning.
Besides reporting on proposed changes to the mandatory three-day “pause for reflection”, she has reported it will recommend sweeping changes including the decriminalisation of doctors involved in provision and the removal of the waiting period to access termination medication. It will also recommend changes to the granting of abortions in the case of fatal foetal abnormalities, including for women who need to access an abortion after 12 weeks. Here are 10 key findings.
This morning Jennifer reports O’Shea has also included that “provision of abortion services in some parts of the Republic is untenable”. Among other new details reported are that some counties have only a handful of providers and non-providing doctors, in some instances, are directly contravening the law by not making arrangements for the transfer of the women’s care.
Šefčovič addresses committee
The pick of the committees today is the European Affairs one, which welcomes Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission vice-president who majored on EU-UK relations after Brexit and was instrumental in getting the Windsor framework across the line. The Slovak diplomat and politician is a safe pair of hands and an experienced and calm negotiator. He drew out from under the skin a lot of the venom that had characterised Brexit negotiations. He was helped in the fact he was dealing with Rishi Sunak and not Boris Johnson.
He’s likely to give an interesting update on where matters lie, now that the Windsor agreement is in place.
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Playbook
Dáil
14:00: Leaders’ Questions
15:04: Bills for Introduction
– Ministers and Secretaries (Attorney General) Bill 2023 – first stage
– Legal Aid (Amendment) Bill 2023 – first stage
15:15: Taoiseach’s Questions
16:00: Motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann of the deployment of a Naval vessel to participate in Operation Irini
16:55: Motion re proposed approval by Dáil Éireann for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the collection and transfer of advance passenger information
17:50: Historic and Archaeological Heritage Bill 2023 – second stage
18:40: Private Members’ Business (Sinn Féin): Motion re proposal for re-introduction of mortgage interest relief
20:40: Parliamentary Questions: Minister for Rural and Community Development Heather Humphreys
22:10: Topical Issues
22:58: Dáil adjourns
Seanad
12.30: Commencement Matters
13.30: Order of Business
14.45: Finance Bill 2023 – second stage
17.00: Statements on the Report of the Independent Review Group on Dignity and Equality issues in the Defence Forces
18.30: Seanad adjourns
Committees
15.00: European Affairs
– Engagement with Mr. Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission vice-president on EU-UK relations and the Windsor framework
15.00: Housing
– A discussion on Housing for All with Minister Darragh O’Brien and junior ministers Kieran O’Donnell and Malcolm Noonan
15.00: Children
– Discussion of possible enhancement of child protection powers of Tusla with senior officials from the child protection agency
15.30: Select Committee on Justice
– Committee stage consideration of the Policing, Security and Community Safety Bill 2023 with Minister for Justice Simon Harris
