WATCH: Limerick TD Niall Collins 'entirely satisfied' planning application for home met criteria

LIMERICK TD Niall Collins has reiterated he met the requirements of a planning application to build a home more than 20 years ago.

It comes in a week where the Minister of State has faced questions over a planning application for a home on lands belonging to his father.

This Thursday afternoon, the Fianna Fail TD made a personal statement in the Dail on the issue which arose following an article on The Ditch website.

A number of claims were made about the planning application lodged in 2001 when Mr Collins, was, as he described it, "a private citizen".

Then, Mr Collins applied for permission for a two-storey house in Patrickswell, Co Limerick on a site owned by his father.

The county development plan at the time - which governed what could and could not be built locally - had identified this land as being part of a 'pressure area' - meaning applicants would have to demonstrate they needed a house here.

Speaking on the issue in the Dail this Thursday afternoon, Mr Collins described the article in The Ditch as "misleading and inaccurate".

"I clearly met the planning criteria on two grounds by virtue of being the son of a long-term resident landholder and having lived in the pressure area prior to 1990," he told the house.

He said he wanted to build the property to be closer to his parents who were advancing in age "to be near them, to help them and to support them in any way I could. I hoped also that I could rear my own family in an area where I had lived for most of my life."

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Mr Collins said the issue that he owned a home away from Patrickswell with his wife was "immaterial" to the planning adjudication 23 years ago.

"The house I owned on the Fr Russell Road in Dooradoyle Limerick was not in the ‘pressure area’," he said.

"What was the most material factor in my planning application was that I had lived in Patrickswell for some 28 years and most importantly prior to 1990. Also, my parents continued to live there throughout that time. I was therefore compliant with the criteria set out in the 1999 Limerick County Development Plan," he added.

Having looked back at the planning notice, and the newspaper advert which advised of it, Mr Collins said these are in his name.

"I learned for the first time earlier this week that an advertisement was published in the Limerick Leader newspaper on April 28, 2001 in relation to a planning application in the name of a Niall O’Connor.

"I was not aware of this advertisement before this week. The correct and only advertisement that I authorised at any time was that published in the Limerick Leader on May 12, 2001. It is the only advertisement on the planning file at Limerick City and County Council and is clearly in my name, Niall Collins.  All of this is available for inspection by anyone on the planning file at Limerick City and County Council," he added.

Mr Collins concluded his statement by saying: "I am entirely satisfied that my planning application 23 years ago for my family home met the correct planning criteria and was correctly adjudicated upon."