Stephen Donnelly’s property also not registered with RTB for three months in 2015

The embattled minister has come under intense scrutiny for failing to register the property in Sandyford with the RTB for three years, having only registered it last week in the wake of the Robert Troy scandal.

However, The Sunday Times reported in 2015 that a tenancy for the Beacon Quarter property had lapsed that January and had not been renewed.

His spokesperson said on Wednesday night he registered and renewed the tenancy in 2011 and 2015.

The spokesperson said tonight the property was also not registered for three months in 2015 and after media reports, was renewed with the RTB.

“Yes, this is a matter of public record. It was reported in the national media at the time that there was a delay with the Sandyford property. That delay was three months,” he said.

The controversy comes after his party colleague Robert Troy resigned as Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise following days of revelations about his property interests, one of which was failing to register a property with the RTB.

The Irish Independent reported last week that Sinn Féin TD Johnny Guirke had not renewed a property with the RTB.

The TD today moved to defend Minister Donnelly.

“I don’t think, in all honesty, that Stephen Donnelly, like myself, would have anything to gain by not registering the property,” he told LMFM.

Mr Donnelly insisted that he will not resign and defended lobbying on behalf of accidental landlords in the Dáil, although not declaring a personal interest.

”It is a mis-renewal in 2019. I missed it. It should not have happened and I rectified it as soon as I found out about it,” he told reporters today.

Asked if he should resign and what makes him different to his party colleague Robert Troy, who resigned as a junior minister last week amid controversy over his property interests, he said: “I don’t believe it warrants that.”

The Fianna Fáil TD for Wicklow said he could only speak for himself.

Asked if he only checked when controversy arose over Mr Troy’s failure to register one of his properties, he said: “I double-checked the Residential Tenancies Board and that’s when I found out.”

Asked why he lobbied on behalf of accidental landlords, he said: “We are accidental landlords. It went into negative equity.

“The previous position I was making which is still relevant today is that we need people to be able to rent places.

“We had a situation where Irish people had a property for their pension or had one in negative equity, were taxed at around 50pc on rental income but corporate investors were paying a tiny fraction of that.

“I did not believe that was the right policy, and I still don’t.”

Mr Donnelly was pressed on why in four successive Budgets he asked for better tax treatment for people who were accidental landlords, saying it was not fair that if you bought one property and had to leave it, you would be taxed at the marginal rate for renting that out again.