SENATOR IVOR Callely has sent a written response to the Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests about the complaint made against him in relation to his expenses under the Ethics in Public Office Act.
The committee will meet on Monday to decide whether it has sufficient information to proceed with its inquiries and whether public hearings are required.
Three other Senators have also written to the committee in response to complaints against them following a request by the committee two weeks ago for a detailed response by August 23rd.
Mr Callely and two of his Fianna Fáil colleagues in the Upper House, Senators Larry Butler and Ann Ormonde, were asked by the committee two weeks ago to deal with complaints regarding their expenses claims. In the case of Mr Callely the complaint relates to mobile phone expenses incurred between 2002 and 2007 when he was a member of the Dáil.
The Senator has already admitted that four receipts he submitted claiming almost €3,000 for the purchase of mobile phones between 2002 and 2007 used the letterhead of a company that ceased trading in 1994.
Mr Callely has returned the sum he received, €2,879, to the Oireachtas and claimed he had submitted the receipts in “good faith”.
The former minister of state had already been suspended from the Seanad for 20 days for claiming travel expenses of about €80,000 to Leinster House from his west Cork holiday home rather than his home address in Clontarf.
Senators Butler and Ormonde were asked to respond to complaints made about their use of their holiday home addresses outside Dublin to claim expenses for travelling to and from Leinster House. The complaints were made when it emerged the two Senators, who have addresses in Dublin, were claiming travel expenses for a period from addresses outside the capital. Mr Butler has previously said his home was in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, and he only stayed in his house in Foxrock on Seanad sitting days.
Ms Ormonde, from Donnybrook in Dublin, has said she claimed expenses from Waterford for a period when building work was being carried out on her holiday home. The fourth Senator, Independent member Rónán Mullen, faced a complaint over an anecdote he told regarding the expenses regime in Leinster House. He objected angrily to being “lumped in” with the other three Senators as there was no complaint against him regarding his expenses.
Mr Mullen publicly called on the committee to deal with the complaint against him separately to those against the other Senators. The members’ interests committee dealing with the matter is chaired by Seanad Cathaoirleach Pat Moylan of Fianna Fáil. Its other members are Frances Fitzgerald of Fine Gael, Labour’s Alex White, Independent Joe O’Toole, Camillus Glynn and Denis O’Donovan of Fianna Fáil.
Green Party chairman Dan Boyle was a member of the committee but had to excuse himself from consideration of the issue because he had made public statements about Mr Callely.
