Donnelly says he would not have benefited from proposed tax law changes for ‘accidental landlords’

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said he would not have benefited from any of the proposals he put forward in the Dáil between 2014 and 2017 in relation to accidental landlords.

On Thursday it emerged that Mr Donnelly, who has described himself as an “accidental landlord”, sought changes which would have seen “accidental landlords” given tax exemptions on rental income. He tabled amendments to finance legislation seeking the changes and had discussions with previous finance ministers on the same issue.

In a statement on Friday morning, a spokesman for the Minister said the changes would not have applied to him.

“The Minister did not stand to benefit in any way from the proposals and amendments he put down in the Dáil. To suggest otherwise is inaccurate. He proposed changes for people who needed to move out of their primary home (such as those with growing families) and were trapped in negative equity. The Dáil record clearly shows he wanted these measures targeted for this very specific group. It did not apply to him.”

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In comments to a committee examining finance legislation 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.

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Meanwhile Sinn Féin’s housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin has said that Mr Donnelly’s failure to register a tenancy agreement with the regulator for three years is not a resigning matter.

The Dublin West TD said, however, that the Residential Tenancies Board should consider “making an example” of Mr Donnelly as well as his own party colleagues Johnny Guirke, who also failed to register a rental agreement.

Asked if he thought Mr Donnelly should step down over the matter, he said: “I don’t. I think it’s wrong, and that applies to any TD whether in my own party or in Government. I do think the RTB should seriously think about making an example of those members of the Oireachtas who haven’t registered,” he said.

By this, he said he meant pursuing them to the extent of their powers including a fine of up to €4,000.

“Lawmakers have an explicit responsibility to lead by example. I think any TD from any party, any junior minister or minister who didn’t register a tenancy with the residential tenancies board, should face the full sanction from the RTB irrespective of the party,” he said.

The Dublin West TD also defended a letter sent by his party colleague and TD for Kildare South Patricia Ryan, which warned of the potential for “significant conflict” with host communities if the process of accommodating Ukranian refugees in modular homes is not well managed by the coalition.

A number of protests have taken place locally in recent days over a perceived lack of information and consultation.

Mr Ó Broin said the Government “urgently needs to ensure that as they provide and rightly provide emergency accommodation for people fleeing Russia’s war in Ukraine, they also ensure both the refugees and the wider community get the support they need”. He said Sinn Féin does “not support the protests that I’m hearing about in Kildare” and that he didn’t think there was a link between them and Ms Ryan’s letter.

He warned that “it would be an enormous mistake for the Government to provide emergency accommodation for anybody and not provide those people in the host communities in which they’re living with adequate support and adequate services. That’s what government needs to do and that’s what Patricia Ryan is calling for.”

He said limiting arrivals from Ukraine was “not an option we’re considering at the moment at all” when “people are being bombed out of their homes daily” and fleeing for their lives. “What we need to avoid here is competition over scarce resources and that competition over scarce resources being manipulated by fringe far right elements for their own ends”

Mr Ó Broin was speaking at a Sinn Féin press call to mark a year since the launch of the Government’s housing for all plan, which he said has been a failure. He said that house prices have gone up by 20 per cent since housing minister Darragh O’Brien was appointed, and rents have risen 15 per cent.

Meanwhile, he said “an entire generation of people, particularly young people, (are) locked out of homeownership”, with the percentage of young people living at home having “skyrocketed” from 25 per cent to 41 per cent.

“The Minister’s housing plan is failing. We shouldn’t be surprised. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the vested interests they represent created this crisis over many decades.”