LAST UPDATE | 24 Jul 2023
FIANNA FÁIL COUNCILLOR Deirdre Conroy has said she was letting a room in her home out for €35 a night ‘similar to a hotel’ and has disputed claims made by one of her former lodgers.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1′s Liveline this afternoon, the Dublin city councillor for Kimmage-Rathmines said she was “just trying to help out” a previous lodger, who shared emails with the Irish Times from Conroy in which she advised the tenant against using the kitchen.
As reported by the Irish Times yesterday, the lodger was told by Conroy that she should not cook in the kitchen and that her rent of €260 a week was “very low”.
Conroy said today: “I don’t know what’s going on about this either. Because I have been in touch with her to find out what’s happening because she was happy on the last day when we were saying goodbye, and every day.
“It was all fine. But she would be home very, very late at night as well. So she would be out with other people dining so this isn’t an issue at all.”
The tenant, a French student in Ireland on a summer internship, said she was told she should wash any plates or cutlery in the sink of her en suite bathroom rather than in the kitchen.
The student, who told the Irish Times that she did not wish to be named publicly has today been named by Conroy who also shared a photo of her on Instagram.
According to the Irish Times, an email from Conroy to the French student read: “My office is downstairs and beside the kitchen, so we don’t advise cooking.
“The last student was happy to order dinner delivered and have it upstairs.”
According to the Irish Times, the lodger paid €1,411 to rent the room for 5½ weeks from the start of this June and was told by Conroy that the rent would be higher for the next lodger.
Conroy also claimed that she did not tell the student that the cooker and the microwave were not working.
“It’s not true. I’m a very truthful person. And she didn’t ask to use it and she was out quite a lot. Every night,” Conroy said.
The councillor said she is not planning to rent the room out any further but that she plans to write to the Irish Times in relation to the story.
Conroy also claimed that a previous blog of hers, titled Diary of a Dublin Landlady, in which she complained about tenants wanting to turn the heat on and the “foul smell” of some of their food was “fiction”.
“I was just trying to write something like a fiction and a blog to help others to try and learn.
“As I said already, I’m not a landlord at all. That funny name was called diary of landlady has nothing to do with me. It’s like a fiction story,” Conroy said.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin was asked if Conroy’s behaviour was proper conduct for a Fianna Fáil councillor earlier today. He responded: “First of all, I was surprised to hear that and people should be allowed use kitchens of course.”
“I’m not over the detail of it, but in ordinary situations, access to kitchen facilities is, one would have thought, a prerequisite for renting out facilities.”
The Tánaiste would not say if he would be speaking to the councillor, instead he said “there are processes in place in the party that deal with issues like that”.
Speaking to The Journal, fellow DCC Fianna Fáil councillor Daryl Barron would not say whether he thinks Conroy should remain in the party.
“That’s up to Deirdre to make. Out of respect for her I don’t want to make a comment.
“I know the Fianna Fáil I’m in and that’s not the same Fianna Fáil,” he said.
“There’s been a lot of media attention on it and the media should be focused on more important things,” Barron added pointing to crime in inner city Dublin.
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