Mick Wallace
Mick Wallace is an Irish politician and former property developer who has been a Member of the European Parliament from Ireland for the South constituency since July 2019. He is a member of Independents 4 Change, part of European United Left–Nordic Green Left. He was a Teachta Dála for the Wexford constituency from 2011 to 2019.
Prior to entering politics Wallace owned a property development and construction company completing developments such as The Italian Quarter in the Ormond Quay area of the Dublin quays. The company later collapsed into Liquidation with Wallace finally being declared bankrupt on the 19th of December 2016.
Personal life
Born at Wellington Bridge in Wexford, one of a family of 12 children, he graduated from University College Dublin with a teaching qualification. He married a woman from Duncormick, County Wexford in 1979, and they had two sons. Their marriage ended while the couple's children were young. He had two more children from another relationship in the 1990s.Wallace has lived in Dublin since his election to the Dáil, two of his children being in full-time education there. For the purposes of Dáil expenses, he is included in the Dublin band. This means he receives less than he would otherwise.
In 2007, Wallace founded the Wexford Youths F.C., which he managed for their first three seasons, and is chairman of its board. The club is in the League of Ireland First Division.
Business and political career
On 5 February 2011, while a guest on Tonight with Vincent Browne, Wallace made the surprise announcement that he intended to contest the next upcoming general election on 25 February as an independent candidate. He topped the poll in the Wexford constituency with 13,329 votes. According to John Dwyer, who stood against him in that election, Wallace's tax affairs were "the talk of the pubs, all of these things were known. Because he was such a rebel, because he was prepared to stick the finger up at the authorities, he got elected."Immediately after the election, Wallace said unregulated drug imports were posing a major health risk and if drugs were regulated, levies could put to use in drug prevention programmes. He also said that the welfare of women working in prostitution would be made better if the trade were not pushed undercover. Elsewhere he has spoken up against what he perceives as discrimination against women by the Irish state.
In May 2011, Wallace said that he would face personal financial ruin and the possible loss of his Dáil seat, if banks were to chase him for personal guarantees he had given them. According to Wallace, his company had passed rents it collected directly to ACCBank since 2008. In a statement Wallace said: "I've tried to build well — we were a very successful company for a long time. We weren't bad, we weren't doing crazy things. We've made money every year for 20 years, employed a lot of people, paid our taxes. But the financial crisis arrived, completely undermined the value of our assets and we're no longer in a great place." He told RTÉ, "If a bank tries to make me bankrupt it has more to do with 'badness' than economics." On 10 October 2011, the Commercial Court ordered Wallace to repay more than €19 million owed to ACCBank. He said he did not have the money.
He said he was "a bit flabbergasted" by Fine Gael's household charge brought in as part of the 2012 Budget, and by how that party had changed from when it was in opposition. On 15 December 2011 he helped to launch a nationwide campaign against the household charge.
In June 2012, The Irish Times reported that Wallace had made a seven-figure settlement with the Revenue Commissioners for under-payment of VAT. The sum related to his company MJ Wallace Ltd. Wallace admitted in the course of the article that he had knowingly made false declarations to the authorities. Under the agreement with Revenue, MJ Wallace Ltd was found to have under-declared VAT liabilities on returns by €1,418,894. Interest came to €289,146 and penalties amounting to €425,668 were imposed, giving a total of €2,133,708. Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett wrote to the Oireachtas Committee on Members' Interests Chairman, asking him to convene an inquiry. When Wallace told an RTÉ radio programme in October 2012 that he once "threatened to hire a hitman to recover an IR£20,000 debt from a building firm", a complaint was filed with Gardaí by a former Navy officer who runs a public information website. Later the same month, Finian McGrath resigned as chairman of the Dáil technical group when Wallace returned to the loose alliance against the wishes of many of its members.
During a debate between the then Minister for Justice and Equality, Alan Shatter and Wallace on RTÉ television in May 2013, Shatter divulged personal information about Wallace. Shatter was later found to have broken the law. Shatter said he obtained the information from then Garda Commissioner, Martin Callinan. Callinan and Shatter both lost their jobs soon afterward, Shatter partially for this breach of the law among other controversies. Wallace disagreed with the appointment of Callinan's successor Nóirín O'Sullivan, citing her previous role as deputy commissioner to Callinan.
Wallace is the listed officer of the Independents 4 Change, which was registered to stand for elections in March 2014.
In October 2014, Wallace alleged in the Dáil that "There will be some unease about the fact that Denis O'Brien's close political links may have been instrumental in his bid to buy Siteserv, the company that won the State contract to install water meters for Irish Water."
Much has been made of Wallace's fondness for the colour pink. Shortly after being elected, while referring to Mary Mitchell O'Connor in Dáil Éireann, he said "Miss Piggy has toned it down a bit today". He accepted full responsibility and later apologised, saying "It was my fault. I passed the reference because of her handbag. I'm completely out of order. I don't have a leg to stand on Clearly it was in bad taste." He called Mitchell O'Connor to apologise and said he would write a letter of apology to her as well. In reference to his fondness for pink, Wallace dyed his hair that colour to raise awareness of cancer in February 2015. Since being elected to the Dáil together for the first time in 2011, Wallace and Dublin North TD Clare Daly have become friends and political allies, and have worked together on many campaigns, including opposition to austerity and revelations of various alleged Garda malpractices, including harassment, cancellation of penalty points in questionable circumstances and involvement of officers in the drug trade. In July 2014 they were both arrested at Shannon Airport while trying to inspect a military aircraft. Wallace said, "All we wanted to do was confirm whether we are being told the truth." Wallace was fined €2,000 for being in an airside area without permission, and chose not to pay. He was sentenced to 30 days in prison in default, and in December 2015 was arrested for non-payment of the fine.
Wallace was accused of politicising the November 2015 Paris attacks by tweeting "So terrible for the victims, but when is France going to stop its role in the militarisation of the planet?" while the attacks were still happening. This sparked an angry reaction on social media.
In December 2015, Wallace and independent TDs Clare Daly and Maureen O'Sullivan each put forward offers of a €5,000 surety for a 23-year-old man being prosecuted under terrorism legislation in the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, charged with membership of an illegal dissident republican organisation.
Joan Burton, then Ireland's Tánaiste, accused Wallace of "putting Irish people at risk" of terrorism by repeatedly linking Shannon Airport to US-led wars "simply for the sake of some media coverage".
On 30 January 2016, it was ruled that Wallace would have to pay €2m to US private equity firm Cerberus, after he raised concerns about it in the Dáil.
At the 2016 general election Wallace stood as an Independents 4 Change candidate and was re-elected, finishing third on the first-preference count with 7,917 votes.
At the 2019 European Parliament election, he was elected as an MEP for the South constituency.