LAST UPDATE | 2 Mar 2023

JUNIOR MINISTER NIALL Collins has defended his 2001 planning application as accurate in a Dáil statement this evening, as Sinn Féin raise concerns at the lack of a question and answer session.

Collins, a TD for Limerick County, told the Dáil that he believed that the planning application he submitted 23 years ago “met the correct planning criteria and was correctly adjudicated on”.

Questions around the planning application have arisen after news website The Ditch made a number of claims about a planning application submitted by the junior minister at the Department of Higher Education.

In his statement, Collins addressed the article, which he labelled as “misleading and inaccurate”.

In May 2001, Collins applied to Limerick County Council for planning permission for a two-storey house in Patrickswell, County Limerick on a site owned by his father. 

In the application documents, which have been seen by The Journal, Collins lists Red House Hill, Patrickswell as the address. 

He told the Dáil that he had met the criteria within the 1999 Limerick Development Plan to be able to build a house on this site, as he was the son of a long-term resident landowner alongside the fact that he had lived in the area prior to 1990.

At the time of his application, Collins had been living with his wife in a property on Father Russell Road, Dooradoyle.

In the application itself, Collins states he had lived at his father’s Red House Hill address for 30 years (1971-2001). 

However, during his Dáil statement this evening, Collins did not state why this was listed as his address but said that he had lived in Patrickswell for 28 years.

“What was the most material factor in my planning application was that I had lived in Patrickswell for some 28 years and most importantly, prior to 1990,” Collins said.

“Also, my parents continued to live their throughout that time. I was therefore compliant with the criteria set out in the 1999 Limerick County Development Plan.

“I am entirely satisfied that my planning application 23 years ago for my family home met the correct planning criteria and was correctly adjudicated upon.”

While Collins defended the application, Sinn Féin’s Denise Mitchell questioned why the Dáil’s Business Committee had not been informed that the Fianna Fáil TD was planning to address the matter today.

Mitchell said that while she welcomed Collins coming forward to address the matter, she said that it would have been better for the junior minister to also take questions.