Former lord mayor of Dublin Nial Ring was told he could no longer let a rental property he owns because of a failure to maintain the house in a proper state of structural repair.
Dublin City Council, in deciding to issue the notice, listed 10 contraventions of the regulations set out in the Housing (Standards for Rented Houses) Regulations 2019, according to a statement.
The house, 7 Caledon Court, East Wall, appears on the current list of 156 properties against which the council has issued prohibition notices as part of its role in monitoring standards in the privately rented residential property sector.
Prohibition notices are only issued after a landlord has been issued with an improvement notice but has failed to implement the improvements sought.
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Improvement notices are issued after the council has inspected a property, having received a complaint or having inspected the property for some other reason.
In his declaration of interests last year, Mr Ring, an Independent north inner city councillor, said the East Wall house was being rented to a tenant availing of the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
The contraventions of the regulations noted by the council involved failing to keep the house in a proper state of structural repair, the failure to put safety restrictors on windows through which a person could fall to the ground, the condition of the sanitary facilities, the installation and maintenance of the heating system, the absence of a carbon monoxide alarm, the condition of the kitchen facilities, the absence of a fire alarm and fire blanket and the condition of energy supply installations.
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The Caledon Court house is one of several modest homes in a small, gated development on the East Road in Dublin 3, most of which appear on the register of rental properties maintained by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB). Number 7 is not on the register.
In a text message, Mr Ring said the property was no longer being rented through the HAP scheme so “has nothing to do with DCC or RTB since last March”.
In his declaration of interests, Mr Ring said he owned the Dublin 3 property and a 50 per cent share in 70 Ballybough Road, Dublin 3, a commercial building with a pub and overhead offices.
He also declared shares in IMC Exploration group Plc (IMC), a mining and exploration company with its registered address at 70 Ballybough Road.
IMC’s shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange and it is exploring becoming dual listed on an exchange in Armenia, according to a recent statement.
Earlier this year, Mr Ring and his long-time business partner Liam McGrattan had charges against them struck out when they appeared in the Dublin District Court after being found intoxicated above the Ref Pub at 70 Ballybough Road during the early days of Covid-19 restrictions in 2020.
Both men were directors of IMC from 2011 to 2018, company records show. A report filed earlier this year shows Mr Ring then owned slightly more than 1 per cent of the company’s shares while a company owned by Mr McGrattan, Wilhan Ltd, owned another 2 per cent.
The largest shareholder, Prague-based Mineral Ventures Invest spol. s.r.o, owned 51 per cent. IMC has a market capital value of approximately €5 million.
Mr Ring is a former member of Fianna Fáil and a former political ally of Bertie Ahern. He was a government appointee to the board of the Industrial Development Authority for 10 years, standing down in 2008.
