Robert Troy 'embarrassed' that he 'misinterpreted' the rules

Robert Troy with Micheál Martin. Mr Troy said he had 'misinterpreted' the rules on declarations of assets. Picture: Collins Photos

Minister of state for trade regulation, Robert Troy, has apologised a second time for not declaring property interests to the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), and said he is “embarrassed” he had "misinterpreted" the rules.

Mr Troy, who has come under intense pressure over the past 10 days regarding his transparency about the buying and selling of properties, and his rental of others, said the “root of the issue” is the fact that he had “misinterpreted” the rules on declarations of assets.

“I got it very wrong, I thought I had got it right, I've now made the amendment,” said Mr Troy.

Speaking to RTÉ Radio in his first public interview in over a week, the Longford-Westmeath TD said that he currently either fully owns or part-owns 11 properties, nine of which are rented out.

He also said that the income for five of his rental properties is supplemented by the local authority-administered Housing Assistance Payment (HAP), but said that such arrangements are “not required to be declared on the members’ interests form”.

That means that six of the nine properties he currently rents out are in receipt of income from a State-subsidised social housing scheme; he also rents out a property in Westmeath under the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS). 

Under RAS, the contract is between the landlord and the local authority, rather than the tenant. Sipo obliges TDs to declare contracts with public bodies which are valued over €9,000.

Earlier, Mr Troy said that a house he part-owns is earning over €9,000 per year from a RAS contract, but wouldn’t identify the property.

Last week, Mr Troy had said in a statement that he had “two RAS contracts with Westmeath County Council”.

He had until now declined to answer any questions as to what properties those contracts applied to.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Troy said that he has “only one RAS contract now €780 per month, 50% share”. He said the other RAS contract had “ceased with sale of house, August 2018”.

Robert Troy is 50% owner of a house at 39 Cathedral View in Mullingar.

Mr Troy has one property in Co Westmeath of which he is 50% owner, a house at 39 Cathedral View in Mullingar. That house, which the minister has been declaring as a rental since he was first elected as a TD in 2011, has been vacant for a number of months.

He declined to identify the properties in question, citing the privacy of the occupants.

Mr Troy later acknowledged to RTÉ Radio that the income from the Westmeath RAS contract stands at €9,360 per annum, but that only 50% of that sum, €4,680, is payable to him, thus leaving it lower than the threshold for contracts with public bodies declarable to the Oireachtas.

Any contract entered into with a public body by a public representative worth in excess of €6,500 is to be declared each year under Ireland’s ethics laws.

Accepted responsibility

Mr Troy further accepted responsibility for the fact that the tenancy agreement for his former family home at Ballynacargy in Westmeath had remained unregistered with the Residential Tenancies Board for nine months, something he said he had asked his letting agent to take care of.

“Ultimately, the responsibility rests with me,” he said, adding, however, that “when you ask someone to do a job you expect it to be done”.

Meanwhile, a house he sold in 2018 at Ashfield, also in Mullingar, had itself raised controversy some days ago when it emerged that Mr Troy had not declared the property on his 2018 Dáil declaration of assets — neither that he had owned it nor the fact it had been sold to Westmeath County Council for €230,000.

In his radio interview, Mr Troy further clarified his pre-tax income from the refurbishment and sale of a house at Clonbalt Woods in Longford town to Longford County Council in 2019 as being €36,000.

Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien yesterday backed his embattled colleague, saying he has "held his hands up".