GALWAY WEST TD Frank Fahey has asserted there was no obligation on him to disclose an interest in two apartments in Dublin where his name appears on the mortgage documents.
According to sources close to Mr Fahey, the two apartments, in adjoining developments in Kilmainham, belong to Mr Fahey's son Brian, whose name appears on the deeds of the property.
However, Mr Fahey's name is included on the mortgage documents that have been submitted to the registry of deeds. The sources say his son could not have taken out a loan if Mr Fahey had not acted as guarantor.
The mortgage for one of the apartments in Cammock, Mount Brown, was registered in June 2004. Because the property itself is registered in his son's name, Mr Fahey's position is that there is no requirement for him to disclose the apartments on the official register of TDs' interests.
When asked if Mr Fahey had given any financial assistance to his son in relation to the properties, the source said that question was "irrelevant" in relation to the requirements for TDs and senators to disclose their interests.
The other apartment owned by Brian Fahey is in the adjoining St James's Court complex in Mount Brown. The mortgage document, in the name of Frank and Brian Fahey, is dated October 2006.
Mr Fahey, who is described as a teacher on secondment from Gort Community School on the latest register of TDs' interests, covering 2007, has built up an extensive property portfolio over the past 15 years with interests in Galway, Dublin, the US, Portugal, Belgium France and Dubai.
Ownership or shares in 21 developments are listed in what is a multi-million property portfolio.
Mr Fahey, who is chairman of the Oireachtas transport committee, has courted controversy in the past in relation to his property interests. In 2000, it emerged that his name was on the title deeds of a property in Florida. The property did not appear on the register of TDs' interests. Mr Fahey said this was because he went guarantor for a friend, John Cahill. He maintained he had no beneficial interest in the property.
In 2006, he denied that he had any connection with a hairdressing business in Moscow in the mid-1990s. Also in 2006, he rejected a report that said he had failed to declare a property in Boston, Massachusetts, in the US.
He said he had no interest in the property and it was not registered to Fahey Higgins LLC, a property company based in Boston, in which he is a shareholder.
Mr Fahey complained to gardaí that same year that individuals in his constituency were involved in a rumour campaign against him aimed at damaging his career. No evidence was uncovered to support the allegations.
