THE STANDARDS IN Public Office (SIPO) has confirmed to The Journal that despite its report into Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy being completed in October it decided not to publish its findings until after the general election.
The complaints to SIPO by TD Paul Murphy and another individual took place after Troy resigned from his Minister of State position in 2022 after online news outlet The Ditch reported that he had failed to declare, in full, his property and business interests between 2020 and 2022.
Before resigning from his ministerial position, the TD for Longford-Westmeath corrected the register and the initial hearings process began.
The SIPO report states that Troy, who was re-elected during the general election this month, contravened the Ethics Act in respect of the declaration of properties, a contract and a directorship in the years 2020 and 2021.
In the report, the commission accepted that failure to declare some of these interests by Troy was inadvertent and there was no attempt by the him to conceal information.
It found there was negligence on his part when the contraventions occurred, but the Fianna Fáil TD will not face any penalty.
Today, Murphy outlined his deep concerns that the SIPO report is dated 21 October, but was not published until after the general election.
He said there was no explanation in the published report as to why it was not published until this week, stating that nothing is set down in legislation as why such a delay would be warranted.
Murphy said today that voters had a right to know the contents of the report before the election.
When asked to outline the reasoning in delaying the report’s publication, SIPO said in a statement to The Journal that it had conducted a hearing on 10 June 2024 into alleged contraventions of the Ethics in Public Office Act and the Standards in Public Office Act by Robert Troy.
“The Commission then considered the evidence and a report was subsequently drafted which was considered by the Commission at its meeting on 21 October 2024.
“The report was agreed, subject to some minor drafting amendments. The drafting amendments were then carried out and the report, including its findings and determinations, was prepared for publication,” said SIPO.
However, the statement went on to say:
Mindful of its role as an impartial and independent body, the Commission decided not to publish any non-routine reports in the run-up to the General Election which was then imminent.
The Commission said it published the full report as soon as possible after the conclusion of the election on 10 December.
Murphy said SIPO’s explanation was “incredible”, stating that the decision to not publish non-routine reports prior to the election as “extremely troubling”. He said such a move raises a very serious question mark over the body.
The report states that Troy did “inadvertently” and “negligently” breach his obligations, but it did not amount to an offence.
“In relation to all of the contraventions of section 5, the Commission finds that Deputy Troy did not intentionally seek to conceal, or avoid public disclosure of, his interests,” the final report said.
“Accordingly, the Commission is of the view that Deputy Troy acted in good faith.”
Six properties were not included on Troy’s declaration, five in Co Westmeath and one in Co Dublin, from 2020 to 2022. The TD corrected the record before resigning from his junior ministerial position.
Separately, the Fianna Fáil TD did not declare that he was the director of RMT Management Limited or that he had held public Rental Accommodation Scheme contracts (public housing assistance agreements) at properties in Westmeath.
SIPO determined that Troy’s failure to list four out of the six properties on his declaration, three in Westmeath and one in Dublin, had arisen from “his misunderstanding” of a TD’s obligations, amounting to negligence.
The Commission found that he was not required to declare one of the properties in Westmeath.
It further ruled that his failure to declare himself as the director of RMT Management Limited and his omission of the final property in Westmeath “could have been avoided” if Troy had given “reasonable attention to the task at hand” and amounted to negligence.
Finally, the Commission stated that Troy “inadvertently” did not declare two Rental Accommodation Scheme contracts because he did not know that he had to. The report detailed that the TD approached SIPO when correcting his records to ask if it was necessary to do so.
SIPO has determined that Troy was found to have been in breach of the Standards in Public Office Act 2001 after it concluded the Fianna Fáil TD carried out a “specified act”.
A specified act is defined as an act or an omission that is “inconsistent” with the performance of someone in public office or the “maintenance of confidence” from the public, under the Standards in Public Office Act 2001. It is not a criminal offence.
The Commission further clarified that, despite it being the view of SIPO that Troy acted in good faith, his “pattern of omissions or errors in this case are a matter of significant public importance” and that it was a duty for it to continue its investigation.
In a statement to The Journal yesterday, Troy said that he welcomed the findings that he had acted in “good faith” and “did not intentionally seek to conceal or avoid public disclosure of [his] interests”.
Additional reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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