Expenses claims for mobile phones made by former Fianna Fáil senator Ivor Callely have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) by the Standards in Public Office Commission.
The issue arises from the controversy which developed last year when it emerged that in 2007 Mr Callely had claimed €2,907 in expenses for purchasing mobile phones from a company that had ceased trading in 1994.
The Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests decided last October that two complaints it had received about the issue should be investigated by the commission.
The commission appointed an inquiry officer to investigate the complaints on November 16th and the officer’s report was considered by the commission at its meeting on April 11th.
“Having considered the report, the standards commission formed the opinion that senator Callely may have committed an offence relating to the performance of his functions as a member. Accordingly, it furnished a report in the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions as required by section 24 (2) of the Ethics in Public Office Act 1995,” the commission said in a statement yesterday.
It added that as Mr Callely ceased to be a member of Seanad Éireann on April 25th, the commission no longer had jurisdiction in the matter and its investigation has been discontinued.
The DPP will now look into Mr Calley’s claim for €2,907 for mobile phone handsets and car kits purchased from a company called Business Communications Limited between 2002 and 2005.
This company had ceased trading in 1994, eight years before Callely’s earliest claim. The claims were made from the period between 2002 and 2005 when Mr Callely was a junior minister.
Mr Callely was elected to the Dáil for Dublin North Central in 1989 and lost his seat in 2007. He failed to win election to the Seanad in that year but was appointed as one of taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s 11 nominees.
Mr Callely did not contest the Dáil or Seanad elections this year.
The controversy over his expenses claim for mobile phones was just one of a number which have dogged Mr Callely in recent years. He was forced to step down as a minister of state in 2005 when it emerged that his home had been decorated free of charge by a building company in the 1980s.
In May of last year it was revealed under a Freedom of Information Act request, that Mr Callely had claimed expenses totalling €81,015 between 2007 and 2010 for overnight and travel expenses from a house in west Cork, although he was still politically active in Dublin. Last July the Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests found Mr Callely had breached a section of the 2001 Standards in Public Office Act by misrepresenting his normal place of residence for the purpose of claiming allowances.
As a result, he was suspended from the Seanad for 20 days without pay.
Mr Callely took a legal challenge to his suspension and the High Court ruled in his favour on the basis that his right to fair procedures and natural justice had been breached by the Seanad committee. Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O’Neill issued formal orders quashing the decision of the committee and its resolution to suspend him. Mr Callely was awarded €17,000 for loss of earnings.