The trial of Galway county councillor Michael Fahy, who is charged with the misappropriation of council funds, began yesterday before a jury at Galway Circuit Criminal Court and is expected to continue well into next week.
Mr Fahy (57), Caherduff, Ardrahan, who has been an elected member of the council for more than 25 years, resigned from Fianna Fáil 1½ years ago when this matter emerged but continues to serve as an independent member of the council.
He denies eight charges of fraud under the Larceny, Theft and Fraud Offences Act.
The charges allege that between 2001 and 2002, Mr Fahy, with intent to defraud, caused amounts of £5,624 and £7,055 to be paid by the council to Thomas Byrne, trading as Byrne Fencing, for his own use or benefit for works included in those sums to the value of £748 and £3,702 respectively in respect of a community involvement scheme (CIS) at Caherduff, Ardrahan. It was approved of by the council by falsely pretending that the works had been approved and certified for payment by the council.
He is further charged under the Criminal Justice (theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001 with attempting to dishonestly misappropriate €7,523 from the council in 2003 in respect of a fencing company invoice under the CIS by falsely pretending the works referred to had been carried out and approved by the council.
Another charge alleges he attempted to make personal gain by producing or making use of a document which to his knowledge was false or misleading.
Martin Giblin SC, defending, said Mr Fahy would strongly deny the charges.
His client had come to a verbal agreement with the local council engineer at the time the CIS was taking place adjacent to his lands at Caherduff, whereby he provided the council with quality stone (which had come from his former homestead) free and in exchange the engineer agreed to erect fencing on his land at the time the scheme was taking place.
Mr Giblin held that there were no written regulations or guidelines governing the administration of CISs at the time and that the council has since moved to tighten its control and handling of scheme funding allocations.
Mr Giblin contended his client had not acted unlawfully when he offered the stone from his former home to the council in exchange for the fencing work.
Former county manager Donal O'Donoghue, who retired in April 2004, gave evidence that when he heard about Mr Fahy's involvement in the CIS shortly before he was due to retire, he moved quickly to tighten up procedures surrounding the administration of such schemes.
"I was afraid that some things could be slipping through the net and I wanted that plugged before I retired," he said.