SIPO: Robert Troy made genuine declaration errors
Deputy Robert Troy failed to comply with provisions of the Ethics Act, but acted in good faith, the public standards watchdog has found.
The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) today released a report on their investigation of his declarations and whether he intentionally failed to declare interests properly.
The report deals with various interests in property and company ownership.
It states: "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. Accordingly, the Commission is of the view that Deputy Troy acted in good faith."
In the lengthy report, it also states: "... the Commission has found that Deputy Troy’s failure to include the properties at Main Street, Ballinacargy, at Cathedral View, at Mary Street and at Rathdown Road arose from his misunderstanding of his declaration obligations. However, due attention to the instructions in the declaration form would have avoided this error. On this basis, the Commission finds that these contraventions were committed negligently."
While SIPO found that the Fianna Fáil man, who retained his Dáil seat in the recent general election, had acted in good faith, his “pattern of omissions or errors” were a “matter of significant public importance”.
"The Commission has found above that Deputy Troy contravened section 5 on multiple occasions, in some respects inadvertently and in some respects negligently. While an individual error, once corrected promptly, may not in itself be a serious matter, the Commission finds that this pattern of omissions or errors in successive declarations was a serious matter."
Troy resigned from his Minister of State position at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment in August 2022 after the The Ditch revealed that the Ballynacargy native had failed to fully declare his property and business interests between the years 2020 and 2022.
The report follows an investigation hearing which was conducted on 10 June 2024.The investigation report, together with full details of the Commission’s findings and determinations, is available on the SIPO website here.
In a statement issued this afternoon, Troy said that he "welcomes" the findings.