Your view: TDs' secondary roles must not interfere with national duties

Sat, 27 Aug, 2022 - 09:15

While Robert Troy said that ‘he has never used his public position for private gain’, he expected the public to forgive ‘errors’ that most of us would face legal or criminal sanctions for — because of the public role he held. He held the misguided assumption that his role as a busy hard-working TD meant he could off-load inconsequential jobs to others and that doing so and blaming back-room staff, someone in Sipo or someone in the RTB who gave him the wrong information, absolves him from obligations that the rest of us would face sanction for, whether we’re busy or not.

There are two very serious issues here; firstly, his easy-breezy attitude to the job of being a landlord, allegedly failing to register tenancies – both with Sipo and the RTB and acquiring regulatory certification regarding fire and planning. If we are to strengthen the private rental market in this country and present it as a viable, secure, and long-term option for the young and old among us that rely on it — then we need to move away from this portrayal of the shyster landlord — someone who only sometimes follows the rules, receives cash in the hand, paperwork bedamned.