Collins expected to make Dáil statement on wife’s property purchase

Fianna Fáil junior minister Niall Collins is expected to make a statement to the Dáil on Thursday about the controversy relating to his wife’s 2008 purchase of a property from Limerick County Council.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien on Wednesday night became the latest senior Government figure to defend Mr Collins and said he was sure the Limerick TD’s statement would put remaining questions to bed.

It is unclear what time Mr Collins will speak in the Dáil but Fianna Fáil believes he will have an opportunity to make a statement on Thursday.

Mr Collins was part of a local area committee of Limerick County Council that recommended disposal of the property in Patrickswell, Co Limerick in 2007 when he was a member of the local authority.

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An open market process that concluded after he had ceased to be a member of the authority, saw the property bought by his wife, who had previously approached the council about selling.

Mr Collins has been sharply criticised for his apparent failure to declare his wife’s interest in buying the property or recuse himself from the local committee’s recommendation.

The allegations were first reported in The Ditch, an investigative news website.

Opposition TDs have been calling for Mr Collins’ Dáil statement to include a questions and answers session but Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl indicated on Wednesday that this was unlikely to happen.

Sinn Féin TD Mairéad Farrell asked when Mr Collins would be making the statement and if he would also be answering questions.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl said he understood Mr Collins had written to him seeking to make a personal statement and he would have to consider what time could be made available on the Dáil’s schedule.

He also said that under Dáil standing orders: “a personal statement never includes questions.”

On Monday night Mr Collins issued a statement on the land sale to his wife through the Fianna Fáil press office.

He said that the process was “open” and “transparent” and added that he was not a member of the council in September 2008 when the sale was completed.

He also said that when the local area committee decided to recommend a sale, neither he nor his wife had any “pecuniary or beneficial” interest in the property.

The decision to sell the property was made following an inquiry from solicitors acting for Mr Collins’ wife, Dr Eimear O’Connor.

Coalition leaders have been critical of Mr Collins, with the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar saying that it would have been “better practice” had he declared his interest, while the Green leader Eamon Ryan said that he “should have recused himself”.

On Wednesday Mr O’Brien also said it would have been better for Mr Collins to have recused himself from the meeting.

However, he joined other senior Coalition figures in defending Mr Collins saying: “Land can only be disposed of by a full council in plenary session. And [Mr Collins] wasn’t even part of that local authority back in 2008 [when the decision was made]. He was in the Dáil at that stage.”

Mr O’Brien said there was nothing underhand in any way about the sale by the council. “It went out and it was publicly advertised and went out for public bids,” he said.