Two Government senators have called on Ivor Callely to resign from the Upper House because of the damage the continuing controversy over his expenses is doing to its reputation.
Green Party chairman Senator Dan Boyle said the drip feed of allegation after allegation and the need for the Seanad committee to keep meeting to deal with the issue should prompt Mr Callely to consider his position.
“The longer he serves in the Seanad the more discredit he brings on it,” said Mr Boyle who added that Mr Callely should not simply resign his membership of Fianna Fil but resign from the Seanad as well.
Mr Callely last night announced he was resigning from the party after an internal disciplinary committee found him guilty of “conduct unbecoming” a member of Fianna Fáil.
The committee was made up of five members of the Fianna Fáil national executive and independent chairman, senior counsel Colm Ó hOisin.
Tonight Mr Callely’s legal advisors O’Hanrahan & Company issued a statement saying they wished to correct “some inaccuracies in the public arena”.
The statement said that contrary to recent publicity Mr Callely’s resignation from Fianna Fáil was prompted solely by the refusal of the committee to allow him the opportunity to vindicate his name by granting him an adjournment.
The statement added that the senator’s decision to resign was also prompted by the committee’s “decision to substantially rely on the various sensationalist claims made by particular print media whose attention to accuracy, balance and fairness is subservient to the requirements of sensationalism at the expense of truth".
The statement said the entirety of the session at which Mr Calley was in attendance dealt with procedural matters and he played no part in the deliberations of the committee that led to a finding against him in his absence.
Earlier Fianna Fáil senator Lisa McDonald added her voice to those calling on Mr Callely to resign from the Seanad.
She said that by resigning last night Mr Callely had denied Fianna Fáil the opportunity to “kick him out” of the party.
“He should now go the whole hog and resign from the Seanad,” said Ms McDonald who, like Mr Callely, was one of the Taoiseach’s 11 nominees to the House.
Ms McDonald said there had been a sea change in Irish politics over the past 10 years or so and certain standards were now expected of public representatives.
She added that Mr Callely had, at best, stretched the expenses regime to the limit and at worst had behaved dishonestly. “I don’t particularly want to go back at the end of September and sit beside Ivor,” she said.
Minister of State for Natural Resources Conor Lenihan insisted today that Taoiseach Brian Cowen had moved swiftly to deal with the expenses controversy but that Mr Callely had not been willing to respond.
“The controversy caused by Senator Calley’s expenses was bringing Fianna Fáil and politics generally in to disrepute. In that sense his removal from the party was inevitable,” said Mr Lenihan.
Fine Gael front bench spokesman Simon Coveney said the Taoiseach should now call on Mr Callely to quit politics.
He said Mr Callely had brought politics into disrepute through his inability to explain his expenses claims.
Mr Coveney said the whole controversy was an unnecessary distraction to politics at a time when huge challenges required urgent decisions.
Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin also said Mr Callely’s resignation from the party did not go far enough and called on the Taoiseach to demand his resignation from the Seanad.
“This senator was nominated by a former Fianna Fáil taoiseach [Bertie Ahern] and it is therefore appropriate that the current Fianna Fáil Taoiseach should demand his resignation from public office. The Taoiseach should not allow this situation drag on,” said Mr Ó Caoláin.
A spokesman for Fianna Fáil said the Taoisaech had made his attitude clear in Tullamore two weeks ago when he called on Mr Callely to consider his position.
