Timmins did not own land at centre of claims

Land in Co Wicklow at the centre of a complaint to the Standards in Public Office Commission did not belong to Fine Gael TD Billy Timmins or to his brother, Cllr Edward Timmins, at the time they made declarations of interest to the local council, according to documents seen by The Irish Times.

Green Party councillor Deirdre de Búrca had made complaints about the brothers to Wicklow County Council, subsequently referred to the commission, in relation to 375 sq metres of land at Bawnogue, Baltinglass. The council agreed to sell these pockets of land, which were surrounded by the Timmins family farm, to the Timmins family in January of this year.

Ms de Búrca said that Cllr Edward Timmins did not declare an interest in the surrounding land in 2006 on the council register of interests, which members must fill out at the beginning of each year. He did, however, absent himself from the vote on the sale of the land pockets, which was carried by 17 votes to one, with one abstention.

She also said that when Billy Timmins was a councillor, in 2003, he did not declare an interest in the Timmins farm when he made his declaration of interests for the council register.

However, legal documents seen by The Irish Times show that neither of the brothers owned the land at the time of making the declarations of interest for the relevant registers.

Letters to the brothers from Millet & Matthews Solicitors state that the Timmins farm had been owned by their family going back to the 1920s, but the brothers did not acquire an interest in it until after January 24th, 2006.

In a letter sent yesterday to the commission, Mr Billy Timmins queried the motivation behind the complaints and asked how the office would protect his good name and integrity.

He said that he believed an attempt was being made to damage him before the general election and he called on the commission to deal with the query quickly, saying that justice delayed was justice denied. Mr Timmins has also made a complaint to Green Party leader Trevor Sargent.