Fianna Fáil's Deirdre Conroy denies claims she refused to allow tenant use kitchen

Fianna Fáil's  Deirdre Conroy. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

A Fianna Fáíl councillor has defended herself against claims from a former tenant they were not allowed to use the kitchen and had to wash their plates in their bathroom sink.

Deirdre Conroy, a councillor for Kimmage-Rathmines since 2019, was responding to claims made by an unnamed tenant in the Irish Times.

The lodger, who shared emails with the newspaper from Ms Conroy in which she advised the tenant against using the kitchen, said she was told she should wash any plates or cutlery in the sink of their en suite bathroom instead.

The lodger paid €1,411 to rent the room in June for five and a half weeks, the paper reported.

Ms Conroy, who was unsuccessful in standing for Fianna Fáil in the Dublin Bay South by-election in 2021, told Liveline she was "just trying to help out".

She said: "I don’t know what’s going on about this either. 

"Because I have been in touch with her to find out what’s happening because she was happy on the last day when we were saying goodbye, and every day.

“It was all fine. But she would be home very, very late at night as well. So she would be out with other people dining so this isn’t an issue at all."

The lodger claimed Ms Conroy told them they were not allowed to use the cooker or the microwave in the kitchen either.

She said the claim was "not true", adding that she was a "very truthful person".

She told stand-in host Katie Hannon: "And she didn’t ask to use it and she was out quite a lot. Every night."

Ms Conroy added there was an issue with the microwave in the house. 

"The door of the microwave, you have to hold it when you want to make something in it,"

"I am not a landlord... there were lots of things in the kitchen she could use... it was like a hotel room"

In 2019, Ms Conroy claimed a blog she wrote about her experience of having a Latvian man as a tenant was "lighthearted".

In it, she complained that some of her tenants wanted to turn the heating on at night, have guests over, and, after one poor experience with a Latvian national, she complained about the smell of his cooking..

A request for comment has been made to Fianna Fáil.