Fianna Fáil senator didn’t declare directorship of family company she falsely claimed was dissolved

The Ditch editors -

Fianna Fáil senator Erin McGreehan failed to declare her directorship of a family company she falsely claimed had been dissolved.

The company continued to operate for more than a year after McGreehan made the claim in her Seanad annual register of interests. The county Louth senator signed off on the company’s accounts seven months after she said it had been dissolved.

Senators are required to declare all directorships in their annual declaration of interests under ethics legislation and can face a SIPO investigation if they fail to do so.

Directors’ payments of €11,430 and €59,156

Former county councillor Erin McGreehan, first appointed to the Seanad by taoiseach Micheál Martin in June 2020, incorporated Civil Intentions Ltd with her partner and co-director Donal McMorland in August 2014. McMorland was the sole shareholder of the engineering consultancy firm.

McGreehan, in her first Seanad declaration of interests published in March 2021, incorrectly claimed that Civil Intentions was “now dissolved”. This wasn’t the case.

Seven months later, in October 2021, McGreehan signed off on the company’s 2020 accounts, which showed payments to directors of €11,430 that year and €59,156 for 2019.

In January 2022 she submitted her annual declaration of interests for 2021 to the clerk of Seanad without declaring her directorship of Civil Intentions.

It wasn’t until a month after that declaration that McGreehan and her partner started the process of dissolving the engineering company. On February 25, 2022 she co-signed a voluntary strike-off application that was submitted to the Companies Registration Office.

The company was finally formally dissolved in June this year.

McGreehan’s Fianna Fáil colleague Robert Troy was forced to resign as junior minister for trade promotion in August after The Ditch published a series of allegations about his undeclared property interests. Several members of the Oireachtas have since filed amendments to the Dáil register of interests.

McGreehan refused to tell The Ditch why she made the incorrect claim in her annual declaration of interests and wouldn't say if she would amend the record.