By: Debbie McCann & Michael O’Farrell
A NEWLY elected Sinn Féin TD who refused to pay more than €12,000 in rent to a housing charity over a four-year period told the Irish Mail on Sunday none of the money owed has yet been repaid, but she has sought legal advice.
Violet-Anne Wynne (Pictured right) told the MoS earlier this year that she would repay the money to Clare housing charity Rural Resettlement Ireland (RRI), but three months later said the matter is only now with her solicitor.
The founder of Rural Resettlement Ire-land that housed Ms Wynne and land that housed Ms Wynne and her family said it cost the charity €1,500 to bring the case to court and it was forced to accept her debt when it wound down in 2018.
JimConnolly – whose charity housed more than 800 families over a 28-year period – said all that Ms Wynne has to do is ‘write a cheque’.
He added that the matter is ‘not personal’ as there is a court order in place for payment.
‘They were evicted and the debt stood,’ he said. ‘People deserve to know the calibre of people we elect.’ But speaking to the MoS, Ms Wynne – who will earn more than €96,000 as a TD – said she is ‘considering a few’ charities to repay her debt, and that the matter is not ‘black and white’.
She claimed Mr Connolly had recently proposed in a newspaper article that it be paid to another charity in west Clare.
‘So there are a few charities out here, a few mental health ones as well, so I’m considering a few but also I am taking legal advice from my solicitor,’ she added. ‘My solicitor wants to get in touch with Jim and ask what he wants done.’ Ms Wynne said she had passed Mr Connolly’s contact details to her solicitor and they should be in contact in the next few days.
Asked if any of the money had been repaid, Ms Wynne said: ‘Nothing has been paid at this moment in time.
She added that the RRI’s closure had complicated matters. ‘There is still an option of maybe the RRI still being in existence and that’s something they are trying to figure out for me,’ she said.
‘Jim himself was out in the newspaper report stating that he would propose that it go to a west Clare charity, so that is why I assumed that the company was completely dissolved and not in existence.
‘If it’s still in existence and the fact that it was owed to them I think I would 100% offer it to them first.’ Ms Wynne and her partner, John Mountaine, were supposed to pay €63 a week for the home when they relocated to Co. Clare with the help of RRI, but racked up arrears of more than €12,000 before they were forced to leave by a court.
Rent arrears began to accumulate as soon as the family moved in – and no rent at all was paid for the final four years of the tenancy.
The refusal of the since newly elected Sinn Féin TD to pay any rent for four years meant another deserving family could not be housed, according to the charity that provided her with a home.
Correspondence records provided to Kilrush District Court during RRI’s legal action to recover arrears and evict Ms Wynne show how RRI repeatedly pleaded for rent to be paid, and Mr Connolly pointed to the fact that his charity had recently had to let three staff go and was struggling financially.
The rent of €63 a week was calculated on the Irish Council for Social Housing guidelines and reflects the fact that the household’s income came from social welfare.
A letter from the RRI to Ms Wynne read: ‘Our meeting with you and our letters have brought no result whatsoever. You have made complete fools out of this charity which worked for years to provide you and others with beautiful houses.’
RRI obtained a judgment for arrears of €12,126.40 in 2016 and an eviction notice saw the family leave the property in 2017.
