A NEW complaint against Senator Ivor Callely, alleging he has failed to declare all of his property interests, is to be investigated by the Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests.
The committee announced the investigation last night following a four-hour meeting, at which it also decided to hold a public hearing on September 21st in relation to a complaint against Senator Larry Butler, concerning his travel expenses.
But complaints against Fianna Fáil Senator Ann Ormonde and Independent Rónán Mullen were dismissed by the committee.
The new investigation against Mr Callely relates to his alleged failure to declare in his annual Oireachtas statement of interest all his property assets that are not for family use.
The investigation is the third by the committee into the Clontarf-based Senator in recent months. In July, it found he misrepresented his normal place of residence for the purposes of claiming expenses.
Since then it has begun a second investigation, into claims by Mr Callely in 2007 for almost €3,000 of mobile phone equipment using receipts from a defunct company.
Yesterday, the committee decided to accede to a request from Mr Callely for a further two weeks to provide it with a written response on the mobile phones issue. But it said a further complaint had been received with regard to the declaration of members’ interests completed by Mr Callely.
It had decided to seek a detailed statement from him on the matter by September 21st.
In the official Oireachtas declaration form, Mr Callely states that he owns two properties both at letting. The latest complaint alleges he has an interest in as many as seven other properties.
Mr Butler, who has an address in Foxrock, Dublin, has been claiming expenses from his holiday home in Graiguenamanagh in Co Kilkenny since being elected to the Seanad in 2007. He has said he and his wife moved there in 2007 and stayed in Foxrock only on Seanad sitting days.
Explaining its decision to strike down complaints against the other two Senators, the committee said their actions were not in contravention of the Ethics in Public Office Acts.
Dublin-based Ms Ormonde had claimed travelling expenses on a temporary basis from her Co Waterford holiday home while her own home was being renovated.
The complaint against Mr Mullen related to comments he made on radio about a colleague advising him to claim expenses from his birthplace in Galway rather than Dublin.
A member of People Before Profit complained that he should have named the colleague. Mr Mullen was highly critical of the committee for “lumping” him in with the other three for what he described as a vexatious complaint.
Mr Callely was suspended from the Seanad for 20 sitting days on foot of the committee’s finding that he did not uphold the standard appropriate to a Senator by claiming travelling expenses of some €80,000 from his holiday home in west Cork between 2007 and 2009.
He was also suspended from membership of Fianna Fáil this month pending a party investigation.
