“You need to have a certain amount of money to get through life at a reasonable standard but, above that, it won’t make you happy. I know a lot of people who made a lot of money and are very sad people. Money can and does change most people and not necessarily for the better. “

-Padraig Ó Céidigh, The Sunday Times 03/05/15

Slumlords come in all shapes and sizes, from businessmen to tabloid darlings to freemen. However, Slumleaks are delighted to finally claim our first politician.

On the 9th of September 2018 a discussion of the housing crisis on the Marian Finucane show provoked an emotional and passionate intervention from Senator Pádraig Ó Céidigh on behalf of the ‘ordinary Joe Soap’. (Listen from 33.00 minutes on here).

However, rather than railing against high rents, economic evictions or skyrocketing homelessness figures the gallant Senator set out to defend a lesser known victim of the housing crisis… those poor souls renting out their spare gaffs on Airbnb.

Ó Céidigh refused to blame AirBnb for driving homelessness and constricting the housing supply – for him, efforts to regulate are just an example of Big Government oppressing the little guy.

“I think that’s actually pushing the problem over to the private sector, to the ordinary Joe Soap who’s out there working on a PAYE basis, barely making ends meet and if they do rent out something I’d say fair play to them. That to me… that to me is enterprise quite frankly.“

Unfortunately, Mr Ó Céidigh’s “Man of the people” credentials are up there with Peter Casey and Sean Gallagher’s. When not defending hotelification, he’s a major player in the tourism business in Galway, having served on the board of Bord Fáilte before going into business in his own right.

He owns Aer Arann, a nursing home in Kinnegad and is listed as a director of at least 20 companies. His portfolio ranges from transport firms to investment firms to Irish language publishing companies.

Coincidentally, he also has two properties on AirBnb on the Long Walk and in Salthill. Slumleaks can only wonder why he’s so opposed to the idea of regulating it.

Slumleaks were first lead there in our investigations on Eugene Burke, who manages the Long Walk property. Far from being simply the working man doing his best to cover expenses, the paper trail for these properties leads right to Leinster House.

He’s declined to declare any of his property interests in the Seanad’s register of interests, despite mentioning it in the newspapers on several occasions.

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He hasn’t been modest about his wealth. He boasted about Aer Arann to The Sunday Times in 2015:

“I had no money and grew it from zero to €130m turnover in four years. The growth was phenomenal because I started from nothing“

He’s being a touch liberal with the truth here – for all of his complaints about regulation consisting of an attack on the entrepreneurs, his own businesses have relied heavily on subsidies down the years and Aer Arann has been in examinership before. It was also far from a solo triumph – those who worked alongside him have voiced their anger at being whitewashed from his version of history.

It can only be assumed from the rest of his CV, and from his one-time net worth of 40 million euro that he is far from “barely making ends meet”, despite his great empathy for those less fortunate than himself.

A thin skin, a feigned “man of the people” persona, mythomania and self-aggrandizement, all wrapped up in the guise of a property tycoon who dabbles in politics…

Could Slumleaks have stumbled on the Gaeilgeoir Donald Trump?