FG councillor accused of ethics breach

A Wicklow county councillor and parliamentary assistant to Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins has been accused of a breach of ethics legislation after he supported a decision to sell council land to Mr Timmins and members of the Timmins family.

Fine Gael councillor Vincent Blake failed to mention his professional involvement with Mr Timmins on January 8th last, when he voted in favour of the disposal of the land to members of the Timmins family, including the TD, who is Fine Gael's spokesman on defence.

According to the Standards in Public Office Commission, Part 15 of the Local Government Act, 2001, requires members of local authorities to disclose an interest if the business of their employer comes before the council. Section 176 of the Act defines beneficial relationships as including partnerships and employee/ employer relationships.

Formal complaints about the councillor's actions on the proposed sale of the land, on the outskirts of Baltinglass in west Wicklow, have been lodged with Wicklow County Council's ethics registrar and the Minister for the Environment by Green Party councillor Deirdre de Burca.

But Mr Blake told The Irish Times he had believed issues relating to ethics and councillors' votes arose only when the councillor or a relative had a direct beneficial interest in the vote.

He said his parliamentary assistant position was paid "by the Oireachtas and not Billy Timmins". He also said he had not thought to raise the issue of his employment during the council debate as "everyone in the council already knew" where he worked.

While he acknowledged that the ethics registrar "may" consider his actions to be in breach of ethics legislation, "it would be only a very minor one".

He insisted he was being targeted by Ms de Burca and the Green Party in a "vexatious"move.

Ms de Burca has also made a complaint against Edward Timmins, a brother of Billy Timmins who sits on Wicklow County Council. Edward Timmins did declare an interest in the motion to dispose of the land, and left the council chamber before the vote.

However, Ms de Burca has complained that Mr Timmins did not declare an interest in family land in 2006 on the council register of interests which members must fill out at the beginning of each year.

Ms De Burca outlined these issues and others in a newsletter distributed in the Baltinglass area at the weekend. The newsletter has since been referred by members of the Timmins family to senior counsel for consideration.

At the centre of the row is just 375sq m of land, originally part of the Timmins family holding, comprising 11 wells. These wells were sold in the 1950s to the county council, which designated them a reserve water supply for the town of Baltinglass.

In the 1970s the water supply was subsumed into two wells. In 2003, as part of planning permission for 60 houses on the surrounding nine acres belonging to the Timmins family, the council required a new water supply to be built. It was in a bid to comply with this condition that the Timmins family sought to buy back the wells and sell the site for development.

Billy Timmins said yesterday that the land belonged solely to his mother until late 2006 and as such could not have been included either by him or his brother Edward in the most recent register of interests, which was compiled in January 2006.

In a statement last night, Billy Timmins accused Ms de Burca of a smear campaign, saying she had failed to mention that the family was paying the council €280,000 for the 375sq m. He added that "the Timmins family is to supply, at their own expense, a significantly enhanced water supply".