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In a previous version of this article, we incorrectly asserted that Deputy Michelle Mulherin had not properly registered rental properties with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB) and that she was in breach of regulations governing landlords. Furthermore, our article failed to acknowledge a statement from Deputy Mulherin that she is compliant in relation to landlord regulations. We apologise unreservedly to Deputy Mulherin for this error.
THE REGISTER OF Members’ Interests for 2014 has been published, allowing us a glimpse into the financial affairs of our public representatives.
All Oireachtas members are required to declare any occupation or income (other than being a politician), any company or charity directorships, and any shares, houses, apartments, or land worth more than €13,000 that they had during the previous year.
TheJournal.ie has been crunching the numbers and rifling through the ledgers of all 166 Dáil deputies, including Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the rest of the cabinet.
Here’s everything you could possibly want to know about what your TDs own and where they put their money, including an interactive map for every constituency in the country.
Sunnier climes
Seven TDs – six Fine Gael and one Labour – own property in some of the most desirable holiday locations in the world, according to this year’s register.
Along with 21 hectares of land and a house in Derraghan, Co Longford, Fine Gael deputy James Bannon declares an apartment in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, on Gran Canaria.
Waterford TD John Deasy rents out a spot on the Italian island of Sardinia, while Labour’s Meath East deputy Dominic Hannigan leases his place on Borga San Frediano in the Tuscan city of Florence.
Former Justice Minister Alan Shatter famously owns and rents out an extensive property portfolio in Dublin, London and in the Florida destinations of Naples and Marco Island, on the Gulf of Mexico.
As well as owning property in Athenry, Galway East TD Ciarán Cannon has a holiday home in the picturesque French commune of Banyuls-dels-Aspres, in the southern region of Languedoc-Roussilon.
Frank Feighan owns houses in Leitrim, Sligo, Roscommon, Dublin and according to his declaration, rents out an apartment at Madach Gardens (Goszdu Court) in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.
Party colleague and Cork North-West TD Áine Collins lists properties in Cork and Kerry, as well as leasing her apartment in the popular Algarve resort of Albufeira, on the southern tip of Portugal.
Setting aside the stock market (more on that below), a number of TDs, including cabinet members, are investing their money and resources outside the country.
On top of a fairly extensive insurance and property portfolio in Dublin, Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett has shares in four separate companies, all based at the same address on Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Jobs Minister Richard Bruton owns shares in Arytza, the Swiss food company which traces its origins to the Irish Agricultural Wholesale Society in Dublin.
Minister for Transport Paschal Donohoe, meanwhile, has shares in Surrey-based consumer goods giant Proctor & Gamble, and party colleague Noel Harrington is invested in a German medical products manufacturer.
Civil engineer Dominic Hannigan is Executive Director of his company Transport Strategies Ltd., which is based in the Wood Green area of north London.
As well as owning shares in it, Hannigan lists himself as a consultant to Transport Strategies, whose headquarters he also owns.
On the opposition benches, former Fianna Fáil Defence Minister Willie O’Dea has a significant portfolio of investments in oil and mining concerns, including Union Jack Oil (Bath), Kaizen Discovery (Vancouver), and Dragon Oil (London).
The Limerick City deputy is also a non-executive director at Union Jack, and the London-based property investment company Formation Group Ltd.
Left-wing TDs don’t own much property
There is a marked difference in property ownership and financial investments across the parties.
An analysis by TheJournal.ie has found that Labour and Sinn Féin deputies own significantly less land, and far fewer homes and company shares than the other main parties and Independents.
Strikingly, every left-wing TD (from the Anti-Austerity Alliance, People Before Profit Alliance, Socialist Party, and United Left Alliance) returned entirely blank forms.
Likewise Séamus Healy, the Workers and Unemployed Action Group TD for Tipperary South, declared only a residence and office in Clonmel, and is on the board of six local voluntary groups.
The chart below uses a formula to adjust for party size, and shows Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are evenly matched in terms of land ownership and company shares, although TDs from the governing party own a far higher proportion of houses and apartments.
As the chart shows, there’s a major drop-off in property and investments when it comes to Labour and Sinn Féin TDs – with the latter declaring not a single office, place of business or shareholding in 2014.
Furthermore, a far lower proportion of Labour and Sinn Féin deputies declared an interest of any kind: 19 out of 34 for Labour (56%) and 7 out of 14 for Sinn Féin, as compared to 84% among Fianna Fáil TDs.
It’s worth noting that TDs are not required to say exactly how much their property is worth, or how many shares they own in a given company, which would add to our understanding.
Nevertheless, you can check out the details of TheJournal.ie‘s analysis of differences between the major parties here.
To view interactive maps of TDs’ property and investments, follow the links below for whichever constituency interests you:
Carlow-Kilkenny – Cavan-Monaghan – Clare – Cork East – Cork North-Central – Cork North-West – Cork South-Central – Cork South-West – Donegal North-East – Donegal South-West – Dublin Central – Dublin Mid-West – Dublin North – Dublin North-Central – Dublin North-East – Dublin North-West (none) – Dublin South – Dublin South-Central – Dublin South-East – Dublin South-West – Dublin West (none) – Dún Laoghaire – Galway East – Galway West – Kerry North-West Limerick – Kerry South – Kildare North – Kildare South – Laois-Offaly – Limerick City – Limerick – Longford-Westmeath – Louth – Mayo – Meath East – Meath West – Roscommon-South Leitrim – Sligo-North Leitrim – Tipperary North – Tipperary South – Waterford – Wexford – Wicklow
To download a spreadsheet and filter by constituency, political party, and cabinet position, click here.
To read a PDF of the register of members interests, as published on the Oireachtas website, click here.
That’s where the money is…
When it comes to investing their own money, our TDs opt for shares in financial institutions – banking, insurance, and so on – far more than any other industry.
There are 30 instances of investment in the financial sector, especially Bank of Ireland, AIB and FBD Insurance.
That’s double the number for the second-most popular, stocks and bonds.
Beyond that, the food and agriculture industry sees seven TDs holding shares – three in the Kerry Group alone – six in manufacturing companies, and five for oil and mining, although Willie O’Dea makes up the totality of these investments.
Rolling the dice
One of the most striking features of the register is the wide variety of circumstances among our elected representatives.
As we noted earlier this month, Roscommon South-Leitrim by-election winner Michael Fitzmaurice revealed that he’s been “cutting turf for Bórd na Móna for a good few years,” and that the land he owns is not fit for development because it’s “out the country.”
Contrast this, however, with some of his colleagues’ complex international financial affairs.
There are four TDs who have some kind of investment in stocks and bonds throughout the world.
Fine Gael TD for Waterford, Paudie Coffey owns Irish state prize bonds, and Willie O’Dea has government commercial bonds managed by Merrion Capital in Dublin and Dolmen Ltd. in Limerick city.
The two big stock market players in the chamber, however, are Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Independent TD Shane Ross.
Noonan does a good bit of business on Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange and, as noted by the Sunday Independent, has dropped some of his European shares in exchange for that perennial safe bet – gold.
Since last year, he has also invested in Portugese government bonds.
Perhaps not surprisingly for a former stockbroker, Dublin South TD Shane Ross has an extensive portfolio including US Treasury bills, German government bonds, and shares in a Scottish investment trust.
The Independent deputy is non-executive director of the Baring Hedge Select Fund in the Cayman Islands as well as the Baring Russia Fund in Luxembourg, and is non-executive chairman of the Henderson Value Trust in Edinburgh.
Dáil Eireann isn’t exactly a bling ring
Holding companies in the Channel Islands and holiday homes in the south of France are all very eye-catching, of course, but overall, our TDs do not report outrageous assets.
Some 42 deputies (just over a quarter) returned entirely blank forms, and a further 34 declared just one house, apartment or piece of land.
Roughly-speaking, this means around half of deputies have quite modest property ownership and investments, although the €87,000 salary afforded them (though not accepted by all), puts this in perspective.
All TDs from two constituencies – Dublin West and Dublin North-West – declared no interests whatsoever.
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Jourinal, please don’t allow comments if all you are going to do is shred anything that doesn’t suit your biased narrative, either open said article for comments and leave the opinions and/or observations up or don’t open them at all if all you are going to do is interfere with them.
@Ken O’Neill: If you’d like to dictate what goes on in a comments section then you may need to set up your own site.
@Diarmuid Hunt:
I already have, and it’s a free speech zone, something you and you’re authoritarian ilk wouldn’t be interested in.
@Ken O’Neill:
Why are you still here then?
Looking at reports coming out, something is seriously off about this.
@Thomas Gareth McMahon: Tell me more. Have a look at this video of the fire and let me know anything you see that’s odd.
@Thomas Gareth McMahon: There is literally no event that some won’t look at and IMMEDIATELY assume it’s fake. and then seek out those that would support their belief.
You’re the very definition of a “reflexive contrarian”.
“reflexive contrarianism is, as the economist Adam Ozimek puts it, a “brain rotting drug.” Those who succumb to that drug “lose the ability to judge others they consider contrarian, become unable to tell good evidence from bad, a total unanchoring of belief that leads them to cling to low quality contrarian fads.””
@Tricia G: I mentioned nothing about it been fake.
@Thomas Gareth McMahon: What’s “seriously off about this”?
Do you think, perhaps, the reason it looks odd to you is there’s a mismatch between what you expect and what you see, not because there’s anything actually odd about this fire, but it’s because you don’t actually know or have a wrong idea of what a fire should look like.
Look at past Forest fires, like the Camp Fire in California a few years ago. Compare it with this fire, see if there’s anything different with this fire, or from you expectations.
@David Jordan: this footage really brings home the reality of this disaster.
Difficult to comprehend when you just hear it on the news,etc.
Its really hard to grasp.
@David Jordan: No civil defence alarms were sounded. The initial fire was deemed contained 2 hours before it spread in earnest – a big reason many were caught off guard. The local government actively cut off escape routes and didn’t provide any assistance/info on how to escape besides, and I quote, ‘Jump in the ocean.’ The traffic jams which resulted became an inferno, most of the dead died in their cars. People are being identified by their jewellery because their bodies have been turned to ash. All easily preventable deaths. People on the island have been sounding the alarm that something is not right. Do some digging, it’s all there, go look for it. Just because MSM isn’t saying it’s fishy doesn’t mean it’s not fishy. Dunno why you’re acting so smug David.
@Dylan Bvrn: I see.
Incompetence interpreted as malice by the conspiracy minded.
“The main thing that I learned about conspiracy theory, is that conspiracy theorists believe in a conspiracy because that is more comforting. The truth of the world is that it is actually chaotic. The truth is that it is not The Iluminati, or The Jewish Banking Conspiracy, or the Gray Alien Theory.
The truth is far more frightening – Nobody is in control.
The world is rudderless.” – Alan Moore
Also, did you see the winds that day? The wind increased to near hurricane force and fanned the flames. The fire, that seemed contained, expanded rapidly. You are familiar with bowing on an ember to make flames?
As for the civil defence alarms, they are only supposed to sound for tsunamis. The idea is they were not sounded as they would cause people to flee inland, towards the fire. Also, the power went out.
“local government actively cut off escape routes”
Evidence needed.
@Tricia G: Oh goody! Another lecture on Tricia’s new favourite expression.
@David Jordan: Civil defence sirens are supposed to be used to warn populations of approaching danger – not exclusively for tsunamis. The very fact that many of these deaths can be attributed to incompedence/lack of action is enough to warrant a closer look. People didn’t know a fire was happening until their houses were in flames. This could have been prevented.
it’s funny that literally nobody mentioned a conspiracy, jewish bankers, or any of that crap, but as soon as someone says ‘something feels off’ you are ready to talk down to them as nutjob wackos who dont understand fire. How about you point that lazer-focused scrutinty at those who are supposed to be managing this disaster – may be more fruitful than jumping the gun on people expressing vague disbelief on the official reporting.
@David Jordan: As for ‘Evidence needed’ I would say just go onto any social media platform and actually look for posts from people in Lahaina, but you probably wouldn’t believe anything could possibly be amiss unless it is explicitly stated by a Big Boy Official Source.
In lieu of evidence, here is a quote: “The midwit is incapable of drawing on multiple streams of information, from many different domains, to understand the novel information in the broader context of a system. To compensate, the midwit turns inward, focusing with increasing resolution and detail into the confines of the information itself. To the midwit, this is nuance. To the genius, he is missing the forest for the trees.” -Me ma.
Comments closed on yet another Israeli terror attack on defenceless Palestinian’s. Comments section was obviously not dancing to the sick IDF tune…journal yet again exposing their true agenda and nature. They have some neck pretending to bastions of truthfullness and righteousnous
@Tomás: Indeed they are bought globalist shills.
@Tomás: .
.
That’s what I was alluding to in my comment above.
@Ken O’Neill:
.
Follow the money…
Absolutely horrendous. Weirdest “wildfire” I’ve ever seen reported on.
The rich elites will be delighted, they have been fighting the locals in lahina for decades to buy their property. What a stroke of luck for them. I bet Oprah’s path she build through her 1000 acres came in handy. She put it there so locals could escape wild fires.
@James murphy: Why is Oprah singled out? Her nearest property is 30 km away on the east side of the island. Clint Eastwood has property just north of Lahaina, Mick Fleetwood has property just east of the town. I noticed others post about Oprah last night, is there source for this claim?
RIP to all those that lost their lives. How does metal melt in a house fire?
@Leslie Dwyer: and trees stay standing… Strange indeed
@Leslie Dwyer: it depends on the metal what it’s melting point is for example aluminum is 660°C (1220°F) it must have been terrifying for those caught up in the fire may they rest in peace. I can only imagine how devastating this tragedy.
@Tomás: A simple google search would explain why trees are still standing.
“no species is adapted to live in fire itself, but animals and plants can adapt to a fire regime. A fire regime includes, among other things, fire frequency, fire intensity and patterns of fuel consumption. Plants have a distinct disadvantage, compared to animals, in the face of fires. They can’t run, fly, creep or crawl out of a fire’s path. But they have adapted to survive, and even depend on, regular fire.
From armouring themselves with thick bark to developing ways to protect precious seeds, trees have developed several fascinating adaptations in response to a predictable fire pattern.”
This nonsense conspiracy theory that it was all “staged”, proven by the fact trees “didn’t burn” (spoiler – they did) is up there with the flat earth one and that birds aren’t real but spies for the Govt.
@Tomás: Look at photos of past forest fires, trees usually survive the fires.
@David Jordan: they do, but should metal melt and brick houses completely disintegrate in the same type of wild fires?
@Tomás: Trees contain quite a lot of water. The wood will not burn until the water boils off. This takes some time. The outer wood and bark may char, but leave the inner wood standing.
(You can try an experiment to demonstrate this. Take a twig from a living tree. Hold it over a flame. It will not burn for some time. You may see water boiling off as steam.)
I believe wind had an effect on the heat of the fire, much as a bellows might be used in metal smelting to raise the heat of a furnace. There was a tropical storm in the area at the time, (which is believed to have caused an electical fire).
@Tricia G: birds are real???
Shooting fish in a barrel.
It is always highly entertaining to read somebody trying to make a connection between ‘free speech’ and the comments sections on The Journal.
@James O’Brien: You’re.
Bomb is a curious word to use for sure…..
have your say