Heather Humphreys today refused to explain to The Ditch why she’s never sought planning permission for using two derelict residential properties she owns as office storage.
Minister for social protection Humphreys, when asked about the two undeclared residential flats above her Cootehill constituency office, told The Ditch, “Fuck off and leave me alone."
Cavan–Monaghan TD Humphreys declared in her most recent Dáil register her ownership of her constituency office. Her declaration however doesn’t mention the two residential properties, each with its own Eircode, on the property’s two upper floors.
The Ditch called to the property today and encountered Humphreys getting out of her garda-driven Audi A6.
Having knocked on the door of the office, The Ditch asked Humphreys about the two derelict flats above her office.
Humphreys told The Ditch she uses the two flats for storage space for her constituency office.
“Up here? Above me? Well they’re storage for the office here,” she said.
The Ditch asked Humphreys whether she had sought planning permission to change the use of the flats to office space. She has not sought permission, which is required under planning law.
Rather than answer the question, Humphreys asked who the two Ditch journalists were.
When told, she said, “Do you know what youse boys do? Fuck off and leave me alone.”
The two residential flats above Humphreys’s office are, from the exterior, in a state of dereliction, with curtains partly drawn over the first-storey property.
As of May last summer there were just more than 1,000 people on the Cavan County Council waiting list for social housing.
