MAHON STAYS SILENT ABOUT MOTHER’S CRIME

OFFALY State solicitor Sandra Mahon did not respond to queries this week asking if she was aware her mother was operating an illegal puppy farm.

Ms Mahon, who was appointed State solicitor in 2018, hit national headlines in 2020 when she instructed counsel in the prosecution of notorious puppy farmer Brendan ‘Benny’ Deegan on behalf of the Department of Agriculture.

Deegan, of Clonminch, Tullamore, Co. Offaly, was convicted and banned from keeping animals for life. Ms Mahon has also prosecuted for breaches of the Wildlife Act.

She was a partner in former Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s old legal firm, O’Donovan Mahon Cowen.

In 2009, she secured permission to build a house on 1.5 acres of her mother’s lands on the basis of ‘local needs’ and in 2014, she got an extension of time to build.

The planning file shows Brian Cowen, as Taoiseach, made representations supporting her application.

A letter from her architect in 2009 said, ‘Sandra Mahon has lived all her life in the nearby dwelling currently occupied by her mother.

‘Currently Sandra is renting in the town but feels the need to return to the lands where she grew up. Sandra is very close to her mother and immediate family and it is Lugmore where they gather most weekends’.