Ireland South MEP Mick Wallace has confirmed he does not own three wine bars in Dublin following controversy this week over claims in a TikTok video, adding that he put his "heart and soul" into them and felt he did.
A video emerged in which he told an Italian colleague he had "three wine bars in Dublin".
He was also introduced as a producer of wine in Piedmont.
It subsequently emerged that Mr Wallace was paid up to €499 a month as an adviser to the bars, which was previously undeclared in his declaration of financial interests in the European Parliament.
In an interview with South East Radio on Monday, Mr Wallace said he "lost the buildings" and ceased being a shareholder in Wallace Calcio (which operates the Dublin bars) after he was declared bankrupt in 2016.
On his position as an adviser, he said: "It's not a conflict of interest, I give the lads advice, and I have contacts with wine producers in Italy. I've kept my link with the bar and with the lads there, but I don't own any of it.
"In August 2019 just after I got elected to Europe they started giving me a small sum for a small bit of work I was doing. Literally, over the last three and a half years it has amounted to €53 per week before tax, I pay 40 per cent tax on that.
"For the media to go into a tailspin over this is a bit strange."
On the video, Mr Wallace said: "I had been talking to one of them for a while, and a girl came along and made the video. I said in the video that I own the bars in Dublin, I don't own the bars in the Dublin... I built them and I put my heart and soul into them, but they're owned by investors now, and I don't have any shareholding in the lease.
"I always kind of felt like they were mine but it's inaccurate for me to say that I own three wine bars, because I don't.
"I feel I always did, but they're owned by investors."
When asked about not previously disclosing the payments he received as an adviser, Mr Wallace replied: "That's a mistake on my part and I shouldn't make a mistake like that. I should be more careful, there's no doubt about it that public representatives should adhere to disclosure requirements.
"The minute I found out I said it was an oversight of mine, I rectified it last week as soon as I found out I wasn't in compliance with the rules I dealt with it."
