Seven Oireachtas members amend Dáil declarations in wake of Robert Troy resignation
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Seven members of the Oireachtas, including two ministers and the Ceann Comhairle, have amended their Dáil declarations since the controversy which saw Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy resign as junior minister
Mr Troy stepped down on August 24 amid intense media scrutiny after it emerged that he had failed to declare a number of properties he had owned on the Dáil's register of members' interests. He subsequently amended his declarations on August 26.
Since then, his Fianna Fáil colleagues Education Minister Norma Foley, Junior Minister James Browne, senators Catherine Ardagh and Mark Daly, and Ceann Comhairle Sean O Fearghail have all made changes to their declarations of interests.
Sinn Féin TDs Martin Kenny of Sligo-Leitrim and Johnny Guirke of Meath West also made amendments.
On September 2, Mr Browne, a junior minister at the Department of Justice, amended his 2019 declaration to account for the land owned where his constituency office in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, is located. This had already been declared in 2020 and 2021.
Ms Ardagh followed suit one week later on September 9, adding a rental property in Marrowbone Lane in the Coombe, Dublin 8, to her list of interests for 2017, which she had sold in June of that year.
Education Minister Norma Foley made a change on September 13. Her adjustment to her declarations for 2020 and 2021 was to describe in further detail the location of her apartment in Rathgar, south Dublin. Mr Troy had been criticised for being imprecise in his declaration of one of his rental properties at Cathedral View in Mullingar.
Mr Daly filed two declaration amendments on September 16, which saw the removal of a property in Phibsborough in north Dublin from the 2020 and 2021 registers which had been listed as a rental, but which he is actually using personally.
On September 20, Mr Quirke updated his occupation on the 2021 register to that of ‘landlord’, having previously listed the ownership of four properties for letting in Longford, Meath, and Galway.
His Sinn Féin colleague Martin Kenny updated on September 20 all of his registers for 2014 through to 2021 to declare a directorship of the Aughavas Parish Improvement Scheme in Co. Leitrim.
On October 7, Ceann Comhaire Sean O Fearghail changed his declaration for 2021 to account for a rental at Fennor in Co. Kildare, one he had actually declared on the previous year’s return.