Minister 'misinterpreted the requirements' after failure to declare second house in Longford

Re what the council spent, a house just around the corner from me was rented out for years and about 4 years ago the owner did it up so as to sell, new floors, decorating, upgraded the kitchen, built a new boundary fence and it was eventually sold to Clare council. They gutted it, windows, new floors, redecorating, stove, new boundary wall , brand new kitchen. They must have spent at least 30k so maybe all councils want to waste money.

That would be fair enough if it was just a standard house the council had bought. But Troy was claiming he put €44,000 worth of work into the house - in 3 months between buying and selling the house, which doubled the value of the property from 80k to 160k. Which by itself is highly questionable, but would suggest the house had been renovated to a high standard.

But then on top of that according to the council's list of work done after purchasing it they were required to "replace existing windows, doors and soffits, improve the heating system, replace bathroom floors with non-slip tiles, replace kitchen units and boundary treatment.”

So one would have to ask exactly what work Troy got done for 44k if it didn't involve even replacing the windows on the house, something thats usually top of the list for anyone renovating a house.

I was actually wondering exactly this yesterday and thinking to myself how did that lad get front and centre after all the controversy.

Troy hasn't left MM side since the think in started. If this is some sort of FF cockeyed plan to rehabilitate Troy it is going to back, it is seen more as a FU to people than anything else. Troy should have been hidden in a press and told not to come out till after everyone has left the building.

It’s bizarre.

I bet Troy will claim mileage!

While you could be right just thinking about this, I was talking to a person who manages a development office with 260 apartments in the development and she told me that a landlord told her the following,

Rent: €750 per month

Tax: €420

management costs: €120

Income left: €210 (unless a new Fridge, washing machine, or any other problems needing checking over the month)

Total for year is €2520 (Again unless a new Fridge, washing machine, or any other problems needing checking over the year)

The most recent apartment sold there was for €165,000 in May of this year. €650 a month rent is only €9000 a year, a yield of only 4.7%, so you were likely underpaying significantly. The average rental yield in in Ireland is 6.64%, so you should have been paying closer to €900 a month.

Which is still one of the cheapest parts of the country to rent in so not exactly representative. The average rent for a 1 bed apartment in Dublin was €1643 a month last November, its likely 10% higher now.

The vast majority of landlords who own apartments in Ireland are getting *far* more than €750 a month rent for them.

With so many of the TD's in the Dáil being so forgetful that they can remember if they own a property or have an interest in a property, I am beginning to wonder if they are capable of being a TD. Here we have another FF'er Senator Ollie Crowe not just forgetting that owned a property but that he actually owned a pub with his name above the door. This on top of Stephen Donnelly accidently becoming a landlord twice and also failing to declare it. You would think that after what happened with Troy that the leaders of the parties would have sent out a memo to all their TD's and Senators to make sure everything was correct in their declarations and yet still we have this still happening.

Niall Collins now or should it be Niall O'Connor. Being corrupt must be a requirement for being part of FFG.

I'm not defending him but the Collins situation seems less blatant/provable than the Troy or English ones. From a quick reading of the story, Collins lived with his parents until 1999, bought a house, then applied for PP in 2001, giving his parents' address? When adults move out of the family home there is usually a period where they give their address as the family home, still receive correspondence to the family home etc. This can go on for years and is usually IME due to laziness/sloppiness rather than skullduggery. Successful skullduggery takes more brains than most of them have.

As for his wife's maiden name appearing in the newspaper notice, he can possibly wriggle out if that by blaming the planning agent. A lot of people employed to do a job are fcukin useless with poor attention to detail. Mixing up names is the sort of thing they do. Also, similar to the address situation, women can change their name after marriage yet for years they are referred to by their maiden name. Then when John Smith and Mary Smith (nee Jones) engage a planning agent, I could see them being so incompetent that they give the name John Jones to the newspaper.

Also, my understanding is that copies of newspaper notices form part of the planning process and are kept in planning files. The PP should have been refused if there was a discrepancy with the name - but that would require Council officials to do their jobs.

Now, if Collins signed a document where his name is given as Niall O'Connor then it is game, set and match for The Ditch.