Leo Varadkar says he’s satisfied with the “comprehensive” statement from Robert Troy (a junior minister in his own department) about the non-disclosure of his property transactions – and casts doubt over need for TDs to disclose sales of property to public bodies – via Gavan Reilly

16 comments

1. Going to take the wild guess, twitter unhappy about this

2. This raises many more questions than it answers.

   If it were a mistake or malfeasance from Troy then that’s just an issue for him.

   This statement calls into question the entire ethics regime and the behaviour of all politicians up to now.

   If Varadkar is correct and house sales don’t need to be disclosed, while a sale of highlighters to a public body would, then what is the rationale for what appears to be a massive hole in the ethics legislation? What is the plan to fix it? Is it acceptable for TDs to engage in property sales to local authorities with no transparency? If this doesn’t need to be disclosed then how many TDs have done this?

   These are all questions the media and opposition need to be asking, because Varadkar has turned a small story about one TD into a potentially massive hole in the ethics and transparency of TDs and hasn’t said anything about whether/how they intend to fix it.

3. Has this comprehensive statement been published anywhere?

4. He doesn’t want TDs to have to report this because he’s doing it himself, I bet.

5. And what about the tenants only paying cash for 10 years and the mystery over why the local authority payed twice the value on the house?

6. Well the public isn’t.

7. Why shouldn’t TDs have to disclose sales to public bodies, if those public bodies are answerable to the Oireachtas?

8. If he was a part of Sinn Fein would he have acted differently?

9. The ~~creatures~~ voters outside looked from ~~pig~~ Fianna Fáil to ~~man~~ Fine Gael, and from ~~man~~ Fine Gael to ~~pig~~ Fianna Fáil, and from ~~pig~~ Fianna Fáil to ~~man~~ Fine Gael again; but already it was impossible to say which was which

10. Welfare cheats cheat us all but when it’s not some peasant cheating the system and its one of his own it’s grand.

11. If I were a politician under investigation for doing shady shit, the last person I’d want vouching for me is the other politician investigated for doing shady shit.

12. If he started to condemn this, he might have to condemn his whole party, so best not do that

13. Leo Varadkar: “I’m satisfied that corruption is not corruption when a government TD does it.^(until Sinn Fein get in power) “

14. These bastards need to be ran out of the Dáil.

    Edit: We’re being taking for morons.

15. So if housing isnt a good or a service what is it Leo?

16. Fucking scum. This whole government is just fucking scum. Winks and nudges and favors for the lads.

    Burn the whole fucking thing down.