LIMERICK Minister of State Niall Collins remains under mounting pressure to answer questions about a land deal involving Limerick County Council and his wife, dating back fifteen years ago.
The Fianna Fáil TD released a statement on Monday night through the party press office explaining that the land sale was approved and sold “following a transparent and open sales process, which was open to all”.
However, the controversy has led to opposition TDs insisting Minister Collins allegedly breached the law because he did not recuse himself from a meeting of councillors and planners in January 2007 when Minister Collins was an elected councillor.
A meeting of the Bruff Local Electoral Area (LEA), which was attended by Mr Collins, agreed that the parcel of land, in which Minister Collins’s wife, Eimear O’Connor, had reportedly expressed an interest in a month prior to the meeting, should be sold on the open market.
Documents released by Limerick City and County Council to the investigative news website The Ditch and shared with the Limerick Post showed Eimear O’Connor purchased the land for €148,000 in 2008.
There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Ms O’Connor.
Section 177 of the Local Government Act states that any member of a local authority present at a meeting of a council, council committee, joint committee, or joint council body, where a “resolution, motion, question, or other matter is proposed or otherwise arises”, that the local authority member has knowledge that “he or she or a connected person has a pecuniary or other beneficial interest in”, they must disclose this “at the meeting, and before discussion or consideration of the matter commences”.
The Act continues that the local authority member must also “withdraw from the meeting for so long as the matter is being discussed or considered, and accordingly, take no part in the discussion or consideration of the matter and shall refrain from voting in relation to it”.
The Act also states that any reference to any disclosure made of any subsequent withdrawal from the meeting “shall be recorded in the minutes … and in the register of interests”.
The minutes of the January 15th 2007 meeting of the Bruff Local Electoral Area, released under the Freedom of Information Act, do not state, either way, that Mr Collins did nor did not recuse himself during the meeting.
The minutes recorded that Mr Collins was one of seven elected councillors present at the meeting.
Under the heading ‘Item 2’ on the agenda of the January 2007 meeting – Disposal of land at Patrickswell – the minutes record that “while the method of disposal was not yet decided it would be by open market and the matter would be brought back to the area meeting again for further consideration.
“The members were in favour of the proposal”, which was proposed and seconded by two other named councillors.
Another of the released Council documents, dated 1 September 2008, over a year after Mr Collins left the local authority when he won his first Dáil seat in May 2007, is a signed notification of the Council’s intention to dispose the vacant “plot of land at Main Street Patrickswell” to Ms Eimear O’Connor for €148,000.
The document includes a footnote which reads: “The disposal of this site was agreed by Members of the Bruff Electoral Area at their meeting held in January 2007.”
However, on Tuesday this week, the coalition government’s party leaders insisted LEA meetings do not have statutory powers to dispose of council land, which they said can only be performed at a full council meeting.
While Minister Collins’ party leader, Tanaiste Michael Martin, Fine Gael Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan criticised Mr Collins for not recusing himself during the 2007 LEA meeting, they did not believe he had breached the 2001 Act, which carries a maximum two year jail sentence and or a fine of up to €10,000.
“It would have been better practice for (Niall Collins) not to have participated in the Local Area Committee, but the suggestion that some sort of law was broken, or that (Mr Collins) was involved in authorising the sale of this property, just isn’t correct – he wasn’t even a member of the Council at the time the property was sold,” Mr Varadkar told reporters.
Mr Ryan added that Minister Collins “should have recused himself in that Area Committee”.
Minister Collins ignored repeated requests for comment from the Limerick Post, however in a statement issued last Monday night by the Fianna Fáil press office on behalf of Mr Collins, the Limerick TD said: “In September 2008 at a statutory meeting of the Limerick County Council, the sale of a property in Patrickswell was approved and sold following a transparent and open sales process, which was open to all.”
“For the record I was not a member of the Council in September 2008, having been elected as a TD in May 2007. Prior to the sale in 2008, the property was advertised in the local public press.”
“When the Council Executive recommended to the Bruff LEA committee that the property should be put up for sale in January 2007, neither I nor my wife had any pecuniary or beneficial interest in that property. There was no disagreement to the executive’s recommendation.”
Addressing the Dáil on the matter last Tuesday, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said: “On the face of it, it is a very, very clear breach of the code of conduct for councillors, it is quite likely a criminal offence under the Local Government Act”.
A Dáil motion by Deputy Murphy, seeking for Minister Collins to answer TD’s questions on the controversy, was defeated 75 to 46 votes.
Responding to Deputy Murphy in the Dáil, the Taoiseach, said it would have been unfair for Mr Collins to face questions from TDs on the subject.
Mr Varadkar said Mr Collins had sought Dáil speaking time in order “to make a further statement or to make a statement” on the matter.
Criticising Deputy Murphy for his motion, the Taoiseach added: “This place is a parliament, it’s not a kangaroo court.”
No date has been set for Minister Collins’ statement to the Dáil.
