Court fines TD Wallace for late payment of pension contributions

Independent TD and builder Mick Wallace has today pleaded guilty to not paying pension contributions to his construction staff on time.

Mr Wallace appeared at Dublin District Court, entering guilty pleas to five charges. He was fined €7,000.

Another 19 counts were dropped by the Pensions Board who brought this prosecution, saying that he owed more than €49,000 was owing on dates between 2008 and 2010.

"All the money has since been repaid," said the Wexford TD. "I've paid all the money that was due.

"I was guilty of late payment because there was a discrepancy between myself and the Pensions Board.

"I haven't challenged, I mean I've held my hands up from the start, I was wrong to have been late in payment."

Deputy Wallace denied that the case is cause for embarrassment, however.

"I mean, I don't think I've done anything wrong," he said. "I've paid all the money due."

Head of Regulation at the Pension Board, Mary Hutch, took a different view."

"The Board takes these cases very seriously indeed, it's a very serious matter to take pension contributions from hard-working employees and not passing them on to the scheme on their behalf," she said.