Updated 4.30pm 

Eleanor Keegan / Photocall Ireland Eleanor Keegan / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

FORMER JUNIOR MINISTER John Perry has declined to comment on revelations that he hired his wife to a €38,000-a-year position after losing his job in the ministerial reshuffle last year.

The Fine Gael TD hired his wife Marie at the beginning of the year according to a report from the RTÉ Investigations Unit.

She was given a job as Perry’s parliamentary assistant on a salary scale of between €38,760 and €49,035 a year, with overtime payments of a further 20 per cent on top of this.

Perry has declined requests for comments on the story.

Speaking in Brussels this afternoon, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said he did not think it was “a wise thing for politicians to appoint family members”.

Perry and his wife faced financial difficulties in recent years after it emerged they had been sued by Danske Bank over unpaid loans relating to business and property dealings in his Sligo-North Leitrim constituency.

A court judgement was registered against them for unpaid debts totalling €2.47 million in July 2013. A year later Perry lost his job as Minister of State for Small Business.

He later reached a settlement with the bank.

Fine Gael said in a statement today:

All staff appointments are made at the discretion of individual TDs and Senators in accordance with the criteria set by the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission. Remuneration is in line with pay scales determined by the Commission.

Speaking to TheJournal.ie today we asked Perry’s Fine Gael colleague, Jerry Buttimer, about the story and whether rules should be put in place to prevent TDs hiring family members:

Minister: John Perry is like thousands of small business owners across Ireland