The Tánaiste says he has 'total confidence' in Minister of State, Robert Troy, despite him failing to declare three properties he owned in full.
It emerged earlier this week the Longford-Westmeath TD had previously owned a property in Mullingar and had failed to declare the sale of it to Westmeath County Council in 2018.
Another house of his in Longford was sold to the local county council in 2018 and was not on the register of interests.
Under Oireachtas ethics rules, TDs are required to declare such contracts.
Taniaste Leo Varadkar says Robert Troy is amending his declaration but says these sales happened before he became a junior minister:
"I think a lot of that was before he was a Government minister and there would be people in politics before they are appointed to a Ministerial office who are involved in business and among those businesses may be property.
There are a lot of people who you want to get involved in politics who are in construction or business 0r farming. Are we really saying that they can't engage in business or buy and sell things?"
People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy has contacted ethics watchdog SIPO to ask them to investigate if there are breaches of an Ethics iIn Public Office act after a failure to disclose the property holdings.
However, SIPO, responding to a query from Shannonside FM, has confirmed that
"There is no obligation under the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995 to disclose the sale of property to a public body. The sale of goods or services to a public body where the value exceeds €6,500 in aggregate in the year in question must be declared.
As property is neither a good nor a service, this provision does not apply and there is no obligation to disclose such contracts.
