{"id":454828,"date":"2026-05-18T12:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/454828\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T12:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T12:13:08","slug":"michael-healy-rae-has-received-e370000-from-kerry-county-council-since-2020-for-providing-social-housing-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/454828\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Healy-Rae has received \u20ac370,000 from Kerry County Council since 2020 for providing social housing \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae<\/a> has received more than \u20ac370,000 from Kerry County Council<\/a> for providing social housing since the start of the decade, records show. <\/p>\n

The sums received by the landlord and former minister of State for leasing homes and providing housing under the rental accommodation scheme (RAS) are set out in files released by the council under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act. <\/p>\n

The provision of social housing<\/a> is regarded as highly advantageous for landlords because they receive rent directly from a local authority, meaning the income is guaranteed and there is no need to employ rent collectors.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae\u2019s filling station business, Black Cap & Co, also received \u20ac1,027.50 from the council for diesel and motor fuel between 2020 and last year. <\/p>\n

Healy-Rae separately receives undisclosed sums for providing housing in Kerry under a second scheme \u2013 the housing assistance payment (HAP). However, access to further detail was refused by Limerick City and County Council, which manages HAP payments on behalf of all 31 local authorities and the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive. <\/p>\n

It acknowledged HAP payments made to Healy-Rae \u201cas an identifiable individual, who is a politician, arising from a private commercial arrangement as a landlord\u201d but ruled against disclosing the sums involved because it was \u201cpersonal information\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked himself to set out his HAP payments, Healy-Rae declined. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a D\u00e1il register of registerable interests,\u201d the Kerry TD said. \u201cI comply with the register and the rules and the regulations and that\u2019s the only comment I\u2019ll make. I declare what I have to declare.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael Healy-Rae: What does \u2018Ireland\u2019s wealthiest TD\u2019 own and what is it worth?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae recently declared 14 houses for letting in Co Kerry, in addition to three guest houses, one rented commercial unit, a vacant premises and a single apartment for letting. <\/p>\n

There was an unquantified number of \u201capartments for letting\u201d in another development and an unquantified number of \u201crooms for letting\u201d elsewhere. Student accommodation for letting in Limerick was declared but not the actual amount.<\/p>\n

Healy-Rae\u2019s social housing rents are in addition to State payments he receives for providing accommodation to Ukrainians fleeing Russia\u2019s invasion of the country. <\/p>\n

Department of Justice figures, reported previously, showed his company Roughty Properties received \u20ac1.33 million<\/a> for housing Ukrainian people between 2022 and last year. <\/p>\n

The TD, widely held to be the richest man in the D\u00e1il, resigned last month as minister of State at the Department of Agriculture in protest at the Government\u2019s response to fuel protests which disrupted trade in Dublin, motor traffic and energy supplies.<\/p>\n

Records showed Kerry County Council paid \u20ac371,303 to Healy-Rae over the last six years for housing. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0No \u2018bitter row\u2019 between the Healy-Raes following Michael\u2019s resignation, Danny saysOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He was paid \u20ac41,906 under the RAS scheme last year and \u20ac28,879.93 for leasing, a total of \u20ac71,785. Total payments to the TD for housing in 2024 were \u20ac65,432, comprising \u20ac39,968 for RAS and \u20ac25,464 for leasing.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Healy-Rae received \u20ac63,496.94 from the council, comprising \u20ac38,436 for RAS and \u20ac25,060.93 for leasing. The 2022 payment was \u20ac58,796 (\u20ac35,876 RAS and \u20ac22,920 leasing) and the 2021 payment was \u20ac56,226.25 (\u20ac33,220 RAS and \u20ac23,006.26 leasing). The 2020 payment was \u20ac55,566.<\/p>\n

Responding to a FOI application from The Irish Times and an internal appeal against the original ruling, Limerick City and County Council twice refused access to Healy-Rae\u2019s HAP payments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe public interest in granting the request does not outweigh the public interest upholding the right to privacy of the individual concerned,\u201d said the council\u2019s decision on the internal appeal. <\/p>\n

Housing Agency guidance on the RAS says landlords receive prompt payments directly, as well as rental payments during any vacancy periods. Landlords can claim up to 100 per cent tax relief on mortgage interest as an expense against rental income.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s guidance on the HAP says landlord payments are made regardless of a change in tenant income. <\/p>\n

\u201cNo upfront private rental standards inspections or tax compliance checks \u2013 both can follow after the tenancy and the rental payments have started, if required.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae has received more than \u20ac370,000 from Kerry County Council for providing social housing since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,22828,61,60,6038,12305,14563,24878],"class_list":["post-454828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-department-of-agriculture-food-and-the-marine","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-kerry-county-council","tag-landlord","tag-limerick-city-and-county-council","tag-michael-healy-rae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}