Eleven of Dublin's 52 city councillors have failed to register their property interests with Dublin Corporation almost a month after the deadline laid down by the Local Government (Planning and Development) Act 1976.
The Act requires city councillors to register details of land, or business interests relating to land, with the planning department of Dublin Corporation 28 days after taking up office.
Councillors are liable to a fine up to £1000 and/or six months in prison if a complaint is pursued by the DPP.
The 11 - four Fine Gael, three Fianna Fail, three Labour and one Green - either failed to provide the relevant information or the details have been mislaid by corporation officials.
A number of city councillors who contacted by The Irish Times said they did not know there was a specific date to register their interests, while some maintained they had already sent details to the corporation.
When contacted, Alderman Maurice Ahern said: "How am I supposed to know that? Am I supposed to read the entire Department of the Environment Acts? I would have thought the Department of the Environment or the corporation would inform us of that."
Dublin Corporation confirmed there was no notice of a return date in an information pack containing the form for registering interests sent to each councillor on June 18th.
A senior staff officer in the planning department at Dublin Corporation, Mr Brendan Dunne, said the corporation had allowed the city councillors some leeway since the local elections as there were no major council meetings scheduled until September 6th. He confirmed that a letter has now been sent to all councillors asking them to register their interests by return of post. However because of the holiday period it was proving difficult to contact some councillors.
Cllr Anthony Creevey, also contacted by The Irish Times, had not registered his interests since being co-opted onto Dublin Corporation in February 1997.
Mr Creevey said he had not got round to it and he had no interests to register anyway but he would do so immediately.
Mr Dunne said this case would have been an oversight on the corporation's part.
The register of interests is intended to make the planning process more transparent and prevent conflicts of interest when councillors consider planning applications.
Details of councillors' land or planning interests are held in a file available to the public at Dublin Corporation's Wood Quay offices.
A spokesperson for the City Manager's office said anywhere a gap in operation occurred it was policy to deal with it and the matter would be investigated.
On being contacted, Cllr Anthony Creevey, Ald Maurice Ahern, Cllr Chris Giblin, Cllr Royston Brady, Cllr Christopher Andrews and Cllr Brendan Carr all confirmed they had not registered their interests.
Cllr Eamonn Ryan, Cllr Frances FitzGerald TD, Cllr Catherine Byrne, Cllr John Gallagher and Cllr Gerry Breen could not be contacted yesterday.