Junior Minister Niall Collins has confirmed that knew his wife had expressed interest in buying a site when he attended a Limerick council meeting discussing the matter.
He also clarified that he was never involved in the process to buy the site at the centre of the controversy.
Minister Collins attended a meeting of the Bruff Local Area Committee in January 2007 during which the sale of a plot of land in Patrickswell, Co Limerick, was initially discussed.
READ MORE: Niall Collins says his actions on Limerick site sale were 'legally correct'
The meeting was not told that a solicitor working on behalf of Mr Collins’ wife had written to Limerick council a month beforehand expressing interest in the site.
A full council meeting decided to sell her the land in September 2008. Mr Collins had been elected to the Dáil by this point.
Minister Collins took part in a press conference on Tuesday with Higher Education Minister Simon Harris about an OECD report. However, most questions from the media were about the recent controversy.
The Limerick TD confirmed that he knew his wife had expressed an interest in the site when he attended the 2007 council meeting.
When asked if he believed that it was “material to the meeting” that his wife had an interest in the property, Minister Collins insisted that he did not break any laws.
He said: “I didn't break the law. It was my judgement back then and it's still my judgement today.
“The law says in relation to a pecuniary or a beneficial interest. It was my judgement back then that I didn't break the law. It's my judgement now that I didn't break the law.
“With the benefit of hindsight and given the perception that has now arisen with some, it would have been better had I recused myself from the meeting.”
Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that Mr Collins’ wife Eimear O’Connor was involved in purchasing the site with another buyer. The name of that buyer was redacted on records released by Limerick Council.
Mr Collins denied that he was involved in the purchase or the negotiations.
He continued: “I was never part of [it]. I was never purchasing the property.
“My wife was purchasing it with another person who subsequently decided to change her mind that they didn't want to proceed. She proceeded on her own.”
Minister Collins was also quizzed on another controversy concerning a planning application for his family home in Limerick. Questions were raised in February about whether a form submitted as part of the 2001 planning application contained incorrect information on where he was living. There were also questions about why the planning application for the Limerick home was advertised in the local paper under the name “Niall O’Connor”.
Minister Collins once again refused to answer questions about whether he was living in a property he had bought in Dooradoyle or in his parent’s home at the time of the application.
He said: “I outlined quite clearly what the planning criteria in relation to all of that was. There were four planning criteria, you had to satisfy one. I clearly satisfied two planning criteria. “I'm not prepared to get into a discussion, either privately or publicly, in relation to my personal living circumstances at that point in time.
“It's up to people to make their own judgement in relation to that.”
The Fianna Fáil TD also said that he was “at a loss” about where the name Niall O’Connor came from or why it was included on a planning notice in the Limerick Leader.
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