Twenty five years ago Gerry Hutch walked down Talbot Street in Dublin’s north inner city with a bag over his shoulder stuffed with £500,000 in cash.
He walked into a branch of the Bank of Ireland, converted the money into a bank draft and gave it to the Criminal Assets Bureau (Cab).
That March 2000 payment was the final instalment in a settlement of £1.2 million he reached with the bureau after it served a demand on him for unpaid taxes. He sold two properties on Buckingham Street, in the inner city, to part fund the settlement.
A quarter of a century later, the 62-year-old married father, grandfather and veteran Dublin criminal figure known as ‘The Monk’ for his disciplined, abstemious lifestyle, faces another demand for unpaid taxes from Cab.
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This time he is being pursued for almost €800,000 for undeclared income the bureau alleges he enjoyed between 2006 and 2010.
It comes at a time when Hutch looks certain to contest the byelection in the Dublin Central constituency, likely to be fought next April or May, which has arisen following the departure of Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe from politics.
Under the Standards in Public Office Act 2001, all members of the Oireachtas must produce a tax clearance certificate when they take up their seat.
So if Hutch is not tax compliant, can he run in the byelection and, should he win, can he take a seat in the Dáil?
Though section 41 of the Electoral Act 1992 sets out a specific list of people disqualified from contesting an election, a prospective candidate’s tax status is not mentioned. Those disqualified from running include gardaí or Defence Forces personnel, undischarged bankrupts, anyone serving a prison sentence of six months or more, anyone without Irish citizenship, and anyone “of unsound mind”.
“There is no legislative bar to a person with an unpaid tax bill standing for election in Ireland,” the Electoral Commission said in reply to queries.
Hutch was arrested in Spain last year in a money laundering investigation, but even if he is charged with offences there in coming months, that would not stop him running in the election – unless he was put on trial, found guilty and jailed for more than six months, all before the election. That seems highly unlikely.
If he stands in the byelection, and wins, he would need to produce a tax clearance certificate shortly after taking his seat. If he is unable to produce that certificate, it appears unlikely he would be unseated.
The public ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission (Sipo), said, speaking generally about the rules, that any successful election candidate must provide a tax clearance certificate issued not more than nine months either side of the election date. In addition, they must – one month either side of an election – make a statutory declaration that “to the best of their knowledge, their tax affairs are in order and nothing prevents the issue of a tax clearance certificate”.
In the event of any possible contraventions, and should a newly elected TD’s tax affairs not be in order, the regulator “may investigate the matter and draw up a report of the result of the investigation,” Sipo said.
“Investigation reports are provided to the Committee on Members’ Interests of Dáil Éireann, and laid before Dáil Éireann.”
Hutch is turning to politics again, after attempting to win a seat in Dublin Central in last year’s general election, after years of life in the public eye.
In 2023 he was acquitted by the Special Criminal Court of the murder of David Byrne (33), who was shot dead in the Kinahan-Hutch feud attack at the Regency Hotel, Dublin, in 2016. The court said in its ruling Hutch was in control of the guns, AK47s, used in the attack.
But he was not on trial for firearms possession so, after his acquittal for Byrne’s murder, he walked free.
Following his arrest in Lanzarote in October 2024 as part of a money-laundering inquiry, he secured bail, allowing him to return home and register as a general election candidate for last November’s vote. He remains under investigation in Spain, but, to date, faces no charges.
Cab, in evidence to the High Court, has previously described Hutch as the leader of “the Hutch organised crime group”. It also described him, in evidence during a case against Kinahan cartel associates, as the main figure on the Hutch side in the now dormant Kinahan-Hutch feud in which 18 people were murdered since 2015, mostly on the Hutch side.
Gardaí believe he was behind two major armed robberies in 1987 and 1996, targeting Securicor and Brinks Allied at Marino Mart and in Clonshaugh respectively, both in north Dublin. A total of £4.7 million (€6 million) was stolen during the raids.
The robberies established him financially and within Dublin’s criminal fraternity, though he was never charged for them and has always denied involvement.
Twelve months ago, Hutch stunned the political establishment by running in the general election, securing 3,100 first-preference votes and almost winning the fourth and final seat. He was eventually edged out by Labour’s Marie Sherlock, who won the last seat.
Hutch is said to be serious about running again, and about winning. The Irish Times understands that, after coming so close last year, he contacted a number of political scientists to speak to them about the Irish electoral system, wanting to get a better understanding of proportional representation and how to get people registered to vote for the first time.
“That probably doesn’t surprise me, he is a guy with that laser focus,” said one garda member who has dealt with Hutch.
“The media probably overestimates how clever he is; he gets too much credit in that sense. But if he throws himself into something, he absolutely goes for it.”
The Government is likely to hold the byelection next spring or early summer and gardaí expect that, during the long run-in, Hutch and his team in the north inner city will attempt to get hundreds and perhaps thousands of first-time voters registered to vote, and to vote for him.
[ Regency Hotel attack getaway drivers fail in appeal over convictionsOpens in new window ]
Garda sources acknowledge Hutch is extremely popular in the north inner city where he grew up. That has endured, despite him leaving for the more upmarket suburb of Clontarf decades ago and spending considerable time in Lanzarote over the last decade. He still commands a large, intensely loyal following in the inner city.
Garda sources expect him to run a committed campaign team that will be more experienced after last year’s campaign, and with more time to plan.
Those who work in the north inner city community said most local people accept Hutch is a criminal, but they believe he is not involved in drugs and admire him, as they see it, for staying away from the drug trade, despite his involvement in criminality. His high-profile attendance at anti-drug public meetings in the 1990s was seen, at least by many locals, as being opposed to the drug trade.
His near-win last year raises the question: can this enigmatic gangland figure really become a TD?
“The last time, he ran simply on an anti-establishment platform. I think he’ll find it more difficult not to say what he stands for,” says Gary Murphy, professor of politics at Dublin City University.
“He got 3,100 first-preference votes, and even if you heap another few on top of that it’s hard to see him being competitive in a byelection. I think he was maybe a celebrity, anti-hero candidate the last time, who had his time in the sun. And 18 months on, he’s unlikely to hold that same excitement.”
Murphy notes there will be just one seat available in the Dublin Central constituency at the byelection compared with four in the general election.
The constituency contest, falling outside a general election, means major parties can “throw everything they have at a byelection for that seat” and this puts Independent candidates such as Hutch at a disadvantage.
Sinn Féin is in pole position to win the seat, given how party leader Mary Lou McDonald topped the poll in the constituency in last November’s general election. Murphy says much of her support should go to whoever Sinn Féin runs as a candidate.
Gail McElroy, professor of political science at Trinity College Dublin, agrees that Hutch will find it tough competing against the main parties, even if their candidates are not major political figures.
“He’s not going to win,” says McElroy. “It’s much harder to win in a byelection. He didn’t win when there were four seats on offer ... and he’s not going to win in a one-seat situation.”
She notes that the only big transfer of votes Hutch received last year was when Independent candidate Malachy Steenson was eliminated, and that was Steenson’s anti-immigrant vote.
Turnout at byelections could be 10-20 per cent lower than in general elections, she says, and many who vote in byelections tend to be older, more affluent and better educated – “the kind of people who vote out of duty”. These would not typically support a candidate like Hutch, she says.
Eoin O’Malley, author and professor of political science, says there was anti-establishment feeling in much of Dublin Central, which has even turned against the main opposition party, Sinn Féin. He believes it is possible “a candidate like Gerry Hutch” could capitalise on that sentiment.
Lower turnout could help him if he has “a better machine on the ground”, especially as the strength of the main parties in the constituency was not what it might be, says O’Malley.
Hutch would need to build up a “big, big lead” to avoid being overtaken by candidates who were to receive more transfer votes, as happened last year against Sherlock.
O’Malley believes Hutch will replicate the “excitement” or “buzz” that boosted his candidacy last year and this could be very beneficial next time around.
“You have a Government that’s pretty unpopular ... and many people also regard the main Opposition parties as part of the establishment. And Hutch will be fresh, he hasn’t been around for the past year, so he will be novel again,” says O’Malley.
“He’ll have no problem getting that level of interest and excitement about him. You can already see it; journalists are already covering it again.”
O’Malley believes his performance in the general election will stand to him if he is on the ballot in the byelection. “He might do better for it because now he has to be taken seriously,” he says.
