Junior Minister Robert Troy’s “catalogue of omissions” showed a “careless disregard” for the mechanisms introduced to prevent corruption in this country, the Labour leader has said.
Ivana Bacik said she believed the Minister of State with Responsibility for Trade Promotion still has “questions to answer”.
Mr Troy has been at the centre of a controversy in recent weeks after he failed to declare all his property dealings to the Dail register of members’ interests.
The Longford-Westmeath TD has apologised to his constituents, Government and Dail colleagues, the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo) and the public over “errors” he made.
In an interview on RTE Radio 1 on Tuesday he said was “embarrassed” by the lack of “due diligence” he gave to the register.
The minister had to make a total of seven amendments to the register and to Sipo.
“At best his catalogue of omissions, failures to declare disclosed a real disregard, a careless disregard if I may say, for the mechanisms introduced to prevent corruption,” Ms Bacik told RTE’s Morning Ireland programme.
“I think Robert Troy still has questions to answer. I think this careless disregard for these mechanisms is compounded by the fact that he is indeed the junior minister for company regulation.”
She said Mr Troy needs to clarify outstanding issues before the Dail resumes.
“The allegations of failures to disclose were first made two weeks ago,” she said.
“It’s nearly three weeks until the Dail resumes. We simply cannot wait that long, and he must clarify matters that are still outstanding.”
A number of Opposition TDs have called for Mr Troy to make a statement on the matter when the Dail resumes in mid-September.
“At a time when so many apartment owners in particular are facing huge bills for construction defects that arose because of the lack of compliance with regulatory standards, at a time when we’re seeing An Bord Planeala in the spotlight, at a time when the Government really needs to be focused on addressing the serious cost-of-living crisis and the homelessness crisis, this is a distraction for Government,” she said.
“I think by the end of this week if matters haven’t been clarified, if Robert Troy hasn’t been able to clear up the outstanding questions, I think his own Government colleagues will be calling for him to go.”
Asked whether it is a resignation issue, Ms Bacik said: “It can become so when there is a such a catalogue of omissions and when there is, as we’ve seen, a drip feed of allegations.”
She also said Mr Troy’s disregard for the standards of compliance “calls into into question judgment. It does call into question competence of Government”.
Ms Bacik said a bill on public sector standards, which would have dealt with some of the “anomalies” that have arisen in this instance, has not been progressed by Government since it was introduced into the Dail by the Labour party in 2015.
“There’s nothing wrong with being a property owner and a TD or senator and I stress that, but the difficulty arises where we see a failure to comply with ethical standards,” she added.
“I think that’s the crux of the issue here, not the property ownership, but careless disregard of mechanisms that we introduce precisely to ensure high standards and public life.”
During Tuesday’s interview Mr Troy revealed that he has a total of 11 properties, nine of which are rented out, and is also in receipt of Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) and Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) payments.
He said he has three properties in his own name, one of which includes his constituency office.
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