Niall Collins: Glaring unanswered question after planning statement leaves him in political danger zone

Minister of State Niall Collins went on the offensive in his Dáil statement on his 2001 planning application for a house in Co Limerick.

However, he has left a glaring unanswered question which means that despite his effort to draw a line under the controversy he remains very much in the political danger zone.

Over the last 48 hours there were suggestions that Mr Collins would address the Dáil on the issue on Wednesday or Thursday or perhaps wait until next week as he reviewed planning documents.

He was expected to address “all circumstances” surrounding the planning application at the centre of allegations by the Ditch website.

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In the end, Mr Collins sought speaking time on Thursday and a slot was hastily arranged with no opportunity for questions from the Opposition.

The Fianna Fáil Minister told the Dáil he was “entirely satisfied” the planning application for his family home in Patrickswell met the Limerick County Council planning criteria in place at the time and was correctly adjudicated upon.

He said there was “misleading and inaccurate” content in reporting by the Ditch website.

Bizarrely, however, Mr Collins did not address a key question on whether a form submitted to the council as part of the 2001 planning application contained incorrect information on where he was living at the time.

The form filled out by his planning agent states that Mr Collins’s address at the time was Red House Hill, Patrickswell, Co Limerick, and that he lived there between 1971 and 2001.

A section of the form relating to so-called “pressure areas” – where development was subject to a number of criteria – states the following: “Having regard to your current living accommodation you are requested to clearly demonstrate your need for the proposed dwelling.”

The answer given on the form is: “Applicant proposes to build his own family home

[ Niall Collins insists planning permission was properly granted ]

and move out of his parents’ house.”

The Ditch reported that Mr Collins bought a property on Fr Russell Road, Dooradoyle, in 1999.

The website alleged that this is where Mr Collins was living with his wife, Eimear O’Connor, at the time of the 2001 planning application, not his parents’ house as suggested on the planning application form.

On Thursday evening the Ditch reported that the pair’s marriage certificate from 2000 states that they intended to live at Fr Russell Road rather than Mr Collins’s parents’ house at Patrickswell.

On Tuesday The Irish Times sent Mr Collins detailed questions asking him to outline exactly when he lived at the property at Fr Russell Road, Dooradoyle.

We asked if the planning application form was incorrect to suggest that he was living in his parents’ house at the time he was applying to build a home at Patrickswell.

We also asked the reason for the inaccuracy if this was the case.

Mr Collins did not reply to these questions despite the allegation that the information on the form was incorrect being in the public domain all week.

He also ignored the issue in his Dáil statement on Thursday evening.

And he has not yet responded to renewed Irish Times questions on the matter and the Ditch reporting on his marriage certificate.

Mr Collins’s broad argument appears to be that he would have received planning permission for the house even if he had declared the Dooradoyle property.

He told the Dáil he “clearly” met all of the criteria by virtue of being the son of a long-term resident landholder and having lived in the pressure area prior to 1990.

[ Niall Collins ‘entirely satisfied’ planning application correctly handled ]

“The matter of whether I owned a house with my wife near Limerick city, which was outside the pressure area, was not an issue of consideration or policy at the time under that county development plan and whether I had stated that or not was immaterial to the planning adjudication process 23 years ago,” he said.

That may well be the case but the possibility that incorrect information was included in his planning application has echoes of the controversy that saw Fine Gael junior minister Damien English fall on his sword in January.

Mr English resigned from his minister of State role after it was revealed that he had given incorrect information to Meath County Council when making a planning application to build a house in a rural area. He acknowledged that he had failed to inform the local authority that he owned another home nearby.

He said: “This was wrong, not up to the standard required and I apologise for doing so.”

Mr Collins may be right that he did not have to declare the Dooradoyle home under the rules in place for pressure areas in Limerick at the time of his planning application.

He may also be correct to say that it is wrong to suggest his planning application would have been rejected due to his prior ownership of a home.

But why not address the question of why the planning application suggests he was living in his parents’ home when the allegation that he was in fact living elsewhere has been the subject of questions for days?

If the planning application form contains incorrect information the issue falls into the same space that led to Mr English resigning.

It is inexplicable that Mr Collins has failed to answer questions about this and did not address the allegation in the Dáil.

His failure to do so could prove to be a major error.

It will certainly see the controversy drag on after his attempt to put it to bed with his statement to the Dáil.