Coalition leaders say junior minister ‘should have recused himself’

The three coalition leaders have said that a junior minister should have recused himself from a 2007 Limerick committee meeting, but have insisted that no laws were broken.

The opposition raised concerns in the Dail on Tuesday about Minister of State for Skills and Further Education Niall Collins’ behaviour in relation to the sale of land in Limerick more than 10 years ago, and called for time to be set aside in the parliament to discuss the issue.

Mr Collins, a Fianna Fail TD for Limerick, has committed to appear before the Dail to give a statement, but the opposition will not be given time to ask questions or give statements in response.

It follows on from a statement Mr Collins issued on Monday night, where he said that at a meeting of Limerick County Council in September 2008, a property in Patrickswell was 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,” he said.

Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who had requested that the minister give a statement, told the Dail on Tuesday that Mr Collins had not disputed the fact that his wife contacted the council when he was a councillor seeking to buy land, nor did he dispute that he then participated in the decision to put the land up for sale and did not recuse himself.

Speaking at a housing briefing on Tuesday afternoon, Tanaiste and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin said that Mr Collins did not vote in the Limerick County Council meeting to sell the land, but he did attend the local area committee where it was decided to sell the land to the open market.

Mr Martin said that “in hindsight, it would have been better” if Mr Collins had recused himself from the Local Area Committee meeting, but added that it was 17 or 18 months later before the land was disposed of.

He said: “Niall Collins wasn’t on the council when that land was disposed by a decision of that council in 2008, he had been elected the previous year in 2007.”

Answering in Irish, he said it was clear that no law had been broken, but that people on the Internet continued to say things that were not true.

He emphatically rejected the suggestion it did not look good that the minister was appearing before the Dail to answer further questions after two other junior ministers – Robert Troy and Damien English – were forced to resign in recent months.

He said it was “unbelievable” to suggest that if a minister has questions to answer, it then follows they must resign.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar added: “I think all of us have been members of local authorities, and the only time that land can be sold by a local authority, because it’s a reserved function, is at a meeting of the full council and Minister Collins wasn’t even a member of council at the time when the property was disposed.

“I think, as the Tanaiste has said, it would have been better practice for him not to have been (involved) at the local area committee, but the suggestion that some sort of law was broken or that he was involved in authorising the sale of this property just isn’t correct.”

Minister for Transport and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said: “Similarly I would say that he should have recused himself in that area committee, the fact that the (land) was sold on the open market, anyone could have purchased it, and as the Tanaiste said, that was decided not at the area committee meeting but at the council.

“There’s agreement across all three leaders here – he should have recused himself from the area committee meeting but that wasn’t the meeting in which it was decided to sell the land, and it was on the open market.”

Speaking in the Dail later, Sinn Fein TD Padraig Mac Lochlainn said that the issue “could not be more serious”, as it concerned planning legislation and the sale of lands in local authorities “applying to all citizens equally”.

Both Labour and the Social Democrats insisted on the minister taking questions, saying that the story “really undermines public confidence”.

Responding, Mr Varadkar said that the minister should be given time to give a statement, but warned against a questions and answers section.

“I do not believe that the questions and answer sessions that happen in this chamber quite frankly are fair. And I am somebody who has been subjected to it. This place is a parliament, it’s not a kangaroo court,” he said.