People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy has confirmed that he will submit a complaint about Fianna Fáil Minister of State Niall Collins to the Standards In Public Office Commission (SIPO).
He told the Irish Mirror that his party “will not stop” questioning Minister Collins or mentioning his case in the Dáil.
He made the comments just hours after Minister Collins made a statement to the Dáil about the sale of a plot of land to his wife in 2008.
READ MORE: Niall Collins says his actions on Limerick site sale were 'legally correct'
Minister Collins said that “in hindsight” he should have recused himself from a January 2007 Local Area Committee meeting during which the sale of a plot of land in Patrickswell, Co Limerick, was initially discussed.
The meeting was not told that a solicitor working on behalf of Mr Collins’ wife had written to the council a month beforehand expressing interest in the site. A full council meeting decided to sell her the land in September 2008. Mr Collins was no longer a councillor at the time.
Mr Murphy told the Irish Mirror that Mr Collins still has questions to answer about the sale of the plot of land.
“It's clear that the government is determined to avoid parliamentary accountability,” he said.
“That's what [Taoiseach Leo] Varadkar’s description of the q&a with the minister as a ‘kangaroo court’ was about.
“That is what [Tánaiste Micheál] Martin’s bizarre attack on The Ditch was about. They're going to continue to block questions and answers in the Dáil. SIPO is the only avenue left.
“If it goes somewhere, it'll go somewhere very slowly. It might take a year or so.
“We won't be stopping looking for questions and answers. We won't be stopping raising this in the Dáil, raising this in the media. We won't be stopping seeking accountability.
“In the meantime, I think it makes sense to have a complaint into SIPO.”
During his statement in the Dáil on Thursday, Minister Collins said he was in "absolutely no doubt that my actions in relation to this matter were at all times legally correct".
He said that “in hindsight” he should not have attended the initial meeting where the sale of the land was discussed, there was no vote on the matter.
Minister Collins contended that “ it is absolutely clear that my wife did not benefit in any way from my attendance at the January 2007 meeting”.
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