Perry’s unpaid loans and massive mileage

SLIGO-LEITRIM TD John Perry, pictured left, the son of a farmer from Ballymote, Co. Sligo, built a retail and catering business empire from the ground up in the 1980s before becoming mired in recent controversies. He was loyal to enda Kenny during the unsuccessful heave against his leadership by richard Bruton in 2010 and later named junior minister for small business in 2011. two years later, however, the tD and his wife consented to a judgment of €2.47m against them at the High Court over unpaid loans to Danske Bank.

the court heard claims that mr Perry and his wife marie had failed to keep up with repayments on loans secured against 50 acres of agricultural land and retail premises.

He later reached an out-of-court deal with Danske Bank to clear his debt – but faced calls from the Opposition to reveal the details.

In October 2013, it emerged that mr Perry had claimed for almost 180,000km since being appointed junior minister for small business in march 2011 – enough to circumnavigate the globe four and a half times. He racked up mileage payments of €68,297.

mr Perry was demoted in July 2014 and returned to the backbenches in a sign that he had fallen out of favour with the taoiseach.

Last year mr Perry defended the appointment of his wife as his parliamentary assistant, saying that she took the role after his previous assistant left and she was doing it temporarily.