TD Niall Collins denies owning Limerick site despite planning consultant’s claim

Minister for State Niall Collins has said he owns no property whatsoever apart from his share of his family home.

The Fianna Fáil TD said he had no interest in a site in Co Limerick which is owned by his wife, Eimear, and that this was confirmed by the property’s entry on the Land Registry.

Mr Collins, who is Minister of State for Higher Education, was responding to a report by The Ditch, an online investigation site, which stated the planning consultant, who submitted the planning application for the site in Patrickswell had informed a prospective purchaser by email that the Limerick TD was the owner.

However, the Limerick County TD said the planning consultant was wrong in that assertion because he never had an interest in the site. “I do not own the site, end of story. I don’t own any land anywhere besides my own home. All I own is my own dwelling, half of it.”

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Mr Collins said his wife owned the land and the property consultant had submitted the planning application on her behalf.

“My wife owns it. She bought it. She is a private citizen. It has nothing to do with me at all.”

The Ditch reported that planning consultant Fergal Cusack wrote in a 2021 email to an interested party that “Niall Collins TD is the owner”.

Mr Collins said on Tuesday that Mr Cusack’s assertion was wrong as he never had any interest in the property. He said Mr Cusack may have erroneously stated that he owned the site by virtue of the fact he was Eimear Collins’ husband.

Planning permission was granted for the construction of five houses on the site in 2020.

Mr Cusack, of Cusack and Associates, confirmed he had mistakenly identified Mr Collins, rather than his wife, as the owner in an email he sent.

“It was inadvertent. Eimear (a GP) was busy in her practice and I had a bit of back and forth with Niall on (the plan), for drawings et cetera,” he said. “That’s all it was, I put his name down by mistake. The whole thing is unfortunate.”