By Conor Ryan (@conor_w_ryan) and Ken Foxe (@kenfoxe)
Seven TDs and Senators did not disclose the full extent of their properties or business directorships in the mandatory declaration of business interests that they must make each year.
Former Small Business Minister John Perry owns a residentially zoned site and house in Ballymote, Co Sligo, which was not included on the register.
When first contacted by RTÉ, he said he did not need to separately declare it because it is used as an overflow car park and storage building for the supermarket he owns across the road – which is on his register of interests.
This was despite him writing to Sligo County Council and it being a condition of planning permission in 2011 that the one thing he would not, and could not, use the property for was either a car park or a commercial storage facility.
In the Oireachtas there is a particular set of rules for TDs and Senators. They have to declare all of their property interests unless those properties have a low value or they are for personal use.
In a subsequent statement, Mr Perry said: “As far as I am concerned this area was always considered by me, as being part of the supermarket and since the council’s decision in 2011 not to allow parking on this portion of ground, the area has just been left derelict and unused.”
You can read the register of interests for all TDs and Senators by clicking the individual reports for 2014 on the website of the Oireachtas at this link.
Minister of State Ann Phelan amended her 2014 statement after RTÉ contacted her about a second house she owns that was not on the register.
The Labour politician said that she should have listed the property in every year since her election in 2011 and had now taken steps to amend the record.
A statement on her behalf said: “I can confirm that Minister Phelan has been in touch with the Clerk’s Office in Dáil Éireann and is in the process of making the necessary amendment.” The record has since been amended.
A number of other TDs and Senators also failed to include directorships that should have been listed in their register of interests. There is a strict reporting requirement here. The size, profitability or trading status of the company does not matter. Even if the role is unpaid it still has to be declared until the company is legally dissolved.
Fine Gael’s Áine Collins did not include directorship of two firms, Ocean View Lodge Limited and Charleville Community Sports Complex Limited.
Ms. Collins said that she would correct the record to include the two companies. “This was an administration error on my part and I am ... submitting a supplementary form to correct this,” she said. The record has since been amended.
Senator Mary Ann O’Brien failed to list one of her directorships. Ms O’Brien – the founder of the Lily O’Brien’s chocolate company – said she had forgotten to include it and that the company MLOM Limited, which was part of the corporate structure of the chocolate firm, had now been liquidated.
In a statement earlier, she said: “This undeclared directorship I hold is in relation to MLOM Limited which is a company incorporated by Lily O’Brien’s back in 2002. This company was set up as an arm of the main Lily O’Brien’s company for research and development purposes and the company has not been used since 2009 and is in fact in the final stages of being wound up, post the acquisition of Lily O’Brien’s in January 2014. As such, it’s a loose end that I genuinely totally forgot about as MLOM Ltd has not been used for many years.”
Independent TD Noel Grealish did not include the fact that he was director of a firm called G.G.C. Galway Glass Centre Limited – a glass manufacturer – which was in liquidation.
He said that he had mistakenly assumed that once a company went into liquidation – it then fell under the control of the liquidators. He said: “I have been advised that even though a liquidator has been appointed, my role as director continues technically until the winding up is complete.
“You will appreciate that my failure to do so is purely a technical omission and arising out of the fact that the winding up is not yet complete”
Mr Grealish said that after taking advice from the Dáil Clerk, he should have included it and he has added it to the register.
Senator Tom Sheahan of Fine Gael did not list directorship of one company Fenit Offshore Supply Base Limited.
Mr Sheahan said the company concerned was not trading. “The company which you refer to is a non-trading company,” he said, “I was unaware that I needed to declare this information. However, upon receiving your letter I have now amended my details.”
The Fine Gael TD Tom Barry omitted any reference to three associated companies for 2014: Biogold Limited, Biogold Agri Limited and Biogold Properties Limited.
In the latest addition of Iris Oifigiúil, they have been added to the register and their purpose is listed as “agriculture and real estate”.
He said the companies had not begun trading and that it was his intention to declare them when they were active.
