Opposition pressure on Donnelly over lobbying for landlord tax breaks

Opposition pressure is mounting on the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly as Sinn Féin has described as a “problem” revelations that he lobbied for tax breaks for landlords for more than four years.

Mr Donnelly, who describes himself as an “accidental landlord”, called for different tax treatment for accidental landlords in the Dáil.

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Under his proposals, raised from 2014 to 2017, accidental landlords would be entitled to tax exemptions on their rental income.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin Ó Broin said the “fact he had such a repeated series of lobbies on not on a single occasion did he say, ‘by the way, this is something I could potentially benefit from’. I think that is a problem.”

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Mr Ó Broin said that at a minimum there should be a declaration in the Dáil where a politician finds themselves in this position.

Speaking on Thursday, Taoiseach Michéal Martin said he had “not seen the context” of Mr Donnelly’s representations to the Dáil.

Mr Martin said that people should declare their interests in debates, but said the Dáil Register of Members Interests was a declaration.

Section 7 of the 1995 Ethics in Public Office Act says: “A member who proposes to speak or vote in proceedings to which this section applies and who has actual knowledge that he or she or a connected person has a material interest in the subject matter of the proceedings shall— (a) if he or she proposes to speak in the proceedings, make a declaration of the fact aforesaid in the proceedings before or during his or her speech, and (b) if he or she proposes to vote, but does not speak, in the proceedings, make the declaration aforesaid in writing and furnish it before voting to the Clerk, or the clerk to the committee, concerned, as may be appropriate.”

During a debate on the Finance Bill in November 2017, Mr Donnelly said his suggestions had been rejected by former finance minister Michael Noonan, and that he was planning to have a meeting with Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe.

At the time, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were in a confidence-and-supply arrangement. Mr Donnelly joined Fianna Fáil earlier that year.

In comments to a committee examining the Finance Bill on November 9th, 2017, Mr Donnelly said: “For several years I have tabled amendments to try to create an exemption for accidental landlords to stop them from being double taxed. The problem with this scenario is that their rental income is taxed at the marginal rate.

“I have provided analysis to the previous Minister for Finance that showed that many people under very modest assumptions end up with tax bills of €5,000 to €6,000.

“When I previously tabled amendments to address this issue before, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, came back and consistently refused to accept them on the basis that it could be a loophole for other people to avoid paying taxes. He said it was too easy to game the system,” Mr Donnelly said.

Mr Donnelly again lobbied for the measure during a debate on the 2016 Finance Bill debate.

There has been scrutiny of Mr Donnelly’s property affairs after The Irish Times revealed Mr Donnelly failed to register a rental property in Dublin for the past three years with the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) and only did so late last week after it emerged Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy had also registered a property late.

Opposition pressure was mounting on Mr Donnelly on Thursday. Social Democrats housing spokesman Cian O’Callaghan said the issue of Donnelly’s property registration was important in the context of whether the Government was seen to take regulation of the rental sector seriously.

“This is a huge slap in the face, actually, for the tens of thousands of landlords who do everything by the book,” he told Newstalk.

A spokesman for Labour said Mr Donnelly needed to make a statement in the Dail outlining how such an omission happened.

“At a time when we are seeing rapidly rising rents, record levels of homelessness, spiralling evictions and a Housing for All plan that’s failing fast, this is a significant oversight from the Minister,” he said.