Fine Gael Senator Paraic Brady didn’t declare he sold a property to Longford County Council for €67,000 – nearly double what he first paid for it – while sitting on the council committee that oversees social housing and estate management.
Elected representatives are required by law to declare any contracts with public bodies worth more than €6,348. Brady marked "nil" in the section requiring disclosure of local authority contracts – despite selling property to the council for almost €70,000.
Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy was forced to resign his junior ministerial role in 2022 after The Ditch reported about his failures to declare similar sales.
Brady – who sits on the Seanad's agricultural panel and last week and has also failed to declare more than €16,000 in farming income – did not mention that he had sold the property to the council in any of his ethics declarations, as required by the Local Government Act 2001.
‘A great investment opportunity’
Paraic Brady joined the Longford County Council’s Strategic Infrastructure committee, which works on the council’s social housing, in 2019. He also bought an apartment in Longford the same year for €39,000.
Records show Brady participated in committee meetings throughout 2021. On April 22 of that year he seconded a motion adopting the council's draft framework for council housing.
Brady marketed the two-bed apartment as a "great investment opportunity" while trying to sell it in an advert seen by The Ditch. The property listing also described it as having "ample car parking" and being "ideally suited to an owner occupier." The asking price was €79,000.
The sale price compared favourably to other units in the development.
Property Price Register records show other apartments in Ardagh Lodge sold for between €40,000 and €95,000 around the same period, with Brady's €67,000 sale towards the higher end. Ten months before Brady's sale, another apartment in the same development sold for €56,000.
Brady, who was elected to the Seanad in February, has publicly defended Longford County Council's housing record.
In April 2024 he said the authority had "delivered more for social housing than any other local authority in the country" and said criticism of the council's housing delivery "offends me" – the same council that bought his property for nearly double what he paid.
In 2022 The Ditch reported that Fianna Fáil junior minister Robert Troy failed to declare his sale of two properties to local authorities, including one to Longford County Council. Troy bought that house for €82,500 and sold it just three months later for €163,000 – almost doubling his money.
Troy was renting out nine properties and was receiving council payments under housing schemes while advocating for increased funding for landlords. He subsequently stepped down from his position as junior minister after further revelations from The Ditch about his undeclared property deals.
Brady and Longford County Council have been contacted for comment.
