Who is Niall Collins, the Fianna Fáil junior minister who can’t shake off controversies?

Niall Collins topped the poll and was elected on the first count when he first stood for the Dáil in 2007.

In doing so he was ensuring the future of one of the most successful Fianna Fáil dynasties in the country.

His grandfather James Collins was a TD from 1948 to 1967 and two of his uncles – Gerard and Michael – also served in the Dáil.

Collins, a TD for Limerick West, forged his own path over the last 16 years and his support base has been consistently strong each time his name has appeared on a ballot paper – even in Fianna Fáil’s disastrous post-economic crash 2011 general election campaign.

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During his party’s time in opposition he served as Fianna Fáil’s spokesman on justice and the environment.

Now aged 50, Collins is junior minister for skills and further education.

He perhaps could have expected a senior ministry when Fianna Fáil returned to power in 2020 but for a controversy he was engulfed in the previous year that saw him lose his then front-bench role as jobs spokesman.

It emerged in 2019 that he voted six times for party colleague Timmy Dooley in the Dáil, while Dooley was absent from the chamber at the time. The revelation was part of the “votegate” saga which revealed casual Dáil voting practices by a number of politicians.

Collins is married to Dr Éimear O’Connor and the pair have two children.

[ Niall Collins: The events that led to the sale of a site by Limerick County Council to his wife ]

[ Controversy over Niall Collins land deal drags into another day ]

It is O’Connor’s purchase of land in Patrickswell in 2008 that is at the centre of the current controversy.

While he was a councillor in Limerick, Collins was part of a local area committee that recommended disposal of the property in Patrickswell, Co Limerick in 2007.

An open market process, which concluded after he had ceased to be a councillor, saw the property bought by his wife, who had previously approached the council about selling.

Collins has said that the process was “open” and “transparent” and he said that when the local area committee decided to recommend a sale, neither he nor his wife had any “pecuniary or beneficial” interest in the property.

He is expected to make a Dáil statement on the matter on Thursday.

The allegations about the sale were first reported by the Ditch website – one of a series of stories it has published about Collins, starting in February.

It has previously made allegations about the planning permission for his family home.

At the start of March, Collins made a Dáil statement insisting that, contrary to the claims in the Ditch article, he fully satisfied the requirements for planning permission, despite owning another home in Limerick which he did not disclose on the planning application.

He did not address the issue of why the planning application stated he was living with his parents, when he was living with his wife at a different address.

Thursday is expected to see another Dáil statement by Collins, one he will hope will draw a line under the controversy that has dogged him in recent months.