Longford Westmeath Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy: 'I did not intentionally seek to conceal or avoid public disclosure of my interests'
SIPO report finds that Deputy Robert Troy ‘acted in good faith’
The findings of the public body charged with overseeing standards in political representatives found that although Deputy Robert Troy failed to comply with provisions of the Ethics Act, he “acted in good faith”.
The publication by Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) of the investigation into the allegations of contraventions of the Ethics in Public Office last week was criticised by some for being delayed until after the General Election.
The SIPO Commission report found that the Fianna Fáil TD contravened the Ethics Act in respect of the declaration of properties, a contract and a directorship in the years 2020 and 2021 and that it was “inconsistent” with the confidence the general public need in ministers.
Deputy Troy resigned as minister of state at the Department of Enterprise in 2022 after his declarations became the centre of controversy.
Last week's report said “the commission finds that Deputy Troy’s pattern of omissions or errors in this case are a matter of significant public importance”.
The commission found that multiple omissions on the part of Deputy Troy in respect of his annual statutory declarations of interests for 2020 and 2021 were “inconsistent with the maintenance of confidence by the general public in the proper performance by Deputy Troy of the functions of his Ministerial office”.
The report findings accepted that failure to declare some of these interests by Deputy Troy was inadvertent and there was “no attempt by him to conceal information”, however they did find there was negligence on his part when the contraventions occurred.
The complaints to SIPO were by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy and another individual. They said their concerns were that Deputy Troy's declaration of interests failed to refer to his ownership of six rental properties, failure to refer to a particular contract he had with Westmeath County Council, and failure to refer to his directorship of a company called RMT Management Limited.
SIPO found Deputy Troy failed to declare five rental properties in Westmeath and one in Phibsborough, Dublin; he failed to declare a contract with Westmeath County Council under the Rental Accommodation Scheme; and he did not declare he was a director of RMT Management Limited.
The report found he had previously declared the interests, detailed them elsewhere in his declaration of interests, or misunderstood the need to declare contracts.
The report was compiled by a committee headed up by Justice Garrett Sheehan, Chairperson of the Commission.
In a statement on the matter the Longford Westmeath TD said: “I welcome the final findings from the Standard in Public Office Commission (SIPO), published today, regarding my errors in my Declaration of Members' Interests highlighted in August 2022.
“I have always accepted this was a serious matter and sought to rectify my errors as soon as they became apparent.”
Deputy Troy continued: “While this is a comprehensive report, I welcome the findings which state that in relation to contraventions of section 5 of Ethics in Public Office Act 1995, the Commission finds that I did not intentionally seek to conceal or avoid public disclosure of my interests.
“Accordingly, the Commission is of the view that while mistakes were made, I acted in good faith.”
The Mullingar based TD concluded by saying, “The Commission did not find evidence that I acted other than in the mistaken belief that my actions in making the original declarations were in accordance with the Commission's guidelines.”
From the outset of the investigation by the political watchdog acknowledged there was ‘no prima facie evidence to support any suggestion that there was a conflict of interest relating to Deputy Troy's public declarations’.