Irish Examiner view: Public has been misled for 15 years

Damien English resignation

Damien English resigned as junior minister after it emerged he had not declared that he owned a property when applying for planning permission for a one-off house. Picture: Collins Photos

Damien English, minister of state at the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment resigned on Wednesday evening followingrevelations about a planning permission he applied for back in 2008.

The facts are relatively straightforward: Mr English did not inform Meath County Council he had owned a house in the county since 2004 when applying to build a bungalow in 2008. If he had declared his ownership of the first house, he would not have received planning permission for the second.

It is difficult to have sympathy for someone guilty of such a glaring omission, particularly when it is alleged that Mr English still owns his first home in Meath. 

In a country with people emigrating in despair at the impossibility of ever owning their own home and others struggling to make mortgage payments during a cost-of-living crisis, as well as the thousands who are homeless, this is an egregious offence.

Rather than setting an example as a legislator, Mr English’s actions can be construed as blithe disregard for the misery being experienced by huge numbers of people when it comes to housing and accommodation.

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Since the news broke, observers have pointed out that misleading Meath County Council about his ownership of a house in 2008 means that Mr English’s entries in the annual Register of Members’ Interests were also misleading every year he made them. 

The revelations also call into question his credibility when speaking in the Oireachtas on mortgage arrears, housing, and associated matters, given further allegations that the former minister has been in arrears with his own mortgage payments.

Justice and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said English’s swift resignation as a junior minister was a reflection of him as a person, but many will point to a lack of swift action over the last 15 years as a truer reflection of the Meath man. Inevitably, questions were asked over whether his resignation as a minister goes far enough. 

It is inconceivable that his actions could be construed as a mistake. How do his constituents desperately seeking housing take him seriously as a public representative who gamed the system? The TD has benefited personally and financially from his actions all those years ago. 

Resigning as a junior minister should be the minimum requirement when a TD has misled the public for a decade and a half.