Full list of 23 landlord TDs asked to stand aside for affordable rent vote

23 landlord TDs have been asked to recuse themselves from a crunch Dáil vote on helping make rent more affordable for renters.

People Before Profit brought a motion to the Dáil on Wednesday afternoon calling for a cap on rents at one quarter of a person’s income.

And when proposing the motion they listed 23 landlord TDs on the official Dáil record, including Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who The Irish Mirror revealed earlier this year had recently become a landlord for the first time.

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The party then made a request that these TDS at least stand aside when it came to voting because they had a potential conflict of interest on this issue.

PBP Dublin South-West TD, Paul Murphy, said: "No TD who is a landlord or who owns a rental property should be voting on this bill.

"That includes one in five of the current Cabinet, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister Stephen Donnelly and Minister Norma Foley."

The Dáil Code of Conduct for TDs states: "Members must base their conduct on a consideration of the public interest and are individually responsible for preventing conflicts of interest."

Mr Murphy added: "It’s obvious to any ordinary person that a conflict of interest exists if a landlord TD votes against this bill.

Paul Murphy during a People Before Profit- Solidarity press briefing at Leinster House on 11 October 2022 (Stephen Collins / Collins Photos)

"When this Bill was debated last year, it was defeated by only 14 votes.

"If the landlord TDs in the Dail had done the right thing and recused themselves, our Bill would have passed.

"I call on all the landlord TDs in the Dail to do the right thing today and recuse themselves from voting on this Bill and from furthering their own economic and class interests at the expense of the renter class - of ordinary working people and their families."

The landlord TDs named by Deputy Murphy in the Dail, as listed in the register of member interests, who he said should not vote on the Bill because they had a clear conflict of interest, were, in this order:

1. Brian Leddin (Green Party)
2. Michael Creed (Fine Gael)
3. Paul Kehoe (Fine Gael)
4. John Paul Phelan (Fine Gael)
5. Richard Bruton (Fine Gael)
6. Sean Canney - (Regional Independent)
7. Noel Grealish - (Regional Independent)
8. Matt Shanahan - (Regional Independent)
9. Alan Dillon (Fine Gael)
10. Robert Troy (Fianna Fail)
11. Michael Moynihan (Fianna Fail)
12. Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail)
13. Sean Haughey (Fianna Fail)
14. James Lawless (Fianna Fail
15. Aindrias Moynihan (Fianna Fail)
16. Brendan Smith (Fianna Fail)
17. Michael Healy-Rae - (Rural Independent)
18. Carol Nolan - (Rural Independent)
19. Alan Kelly (Labour)
20. Johnny Guirke (Sinn Fein)
21. Leo Varadkar - (Fine Gael)
22. Stephen Donnelly (Fianna Fail)
23. Norma Foley (Fianna Fail)

The main aim of the Bill in its title was: "to amend the Residential Tenancies Act 2004 to reduce rents to affordable levels by limiting them to a maximum of a quarter of monthly household incomes and to establish a National Rent Authority for this purpose."

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