No comments over Dáil attendance but TD won’t stand in election

Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy has defended €26,000 in profits from his consultancy firm from his work in Europe, while having the lowest Dáil attendance last year.

Mr Murphy, a €94,535-a-year TD for Cork North-Central has declared he will not stand at the next election and has worked as director of elections with the European People’s Party (EPP), Fine Gael’s EU group between 2017 and the elections in May.

Mr Murphy was appointed Minister for European Affairs by Enda Kenny but was demoted by Leo Varadkar when he became Taoiseach in June 2017.

However, shortly thereafter, he became EPP director of elections and the position was largely based in Brussels. This meant Mr Murphy was not in the Dáil full-time.

He established the Epecon company in September 2017 to handle his consultancy fees after he was appointed as the EPP’s director of elections for the May 2019 European elections.

As reported in the Sunday Times, accounts filed last week show that for the period up to June 30, 2018, Epecon had just under €60,000 cash in its bank accounts and “in hand”.

The company — of which Murphy and Tanya, his wife, are directors — posted a profit of €26,265 for the first nine months of its existence, the records show.

It is understood that Mr Murphy’s contract with the EPP expired once the elections in May concluded.

The EPP suffered a loss of 42 seats, but at 179 still has the largest single block in the 751-seat EU Parliament.

According to official Oireachtas figures, Mr Murphy attended just 42 of the 104 days that the Dáil was in session during 2018.

According to the Oireachtas website, Mr Murphy spoke just once in parliament at a committee hearing about the State broadcaster RTÉ, and asked just two written parliamentary questions in that time.

A spokeswoman for Fine Gael said the party would not be making any comment about Mr Murphy’s poor attendance. But it is understood that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was happy to let him continue in his role given his commitment to stand down at the next election.

Attempts to contact Mr Murphy yesterday were unsuccessful but he has defended his position in recent days. “It was an important position and I was honoured to do it. We had a reasonably successful election. We are the largest political party and we have the presidency of the commission. There was a payment paid to me and I have published my accounts.”