THE SEANAD committee that last night launched a new investigation into Senator Ivor Callely has decided to write to two other Senators seeking information about their Oireachtas expenses.
Senator Larry Butler, who resigned the Fianna Fáil whip in June, and Senator Ann Ormonde, who retains the party whip, will be given a deadline of two weeks to respond to the Committee on Members Interests of Seanad Éireann.
The committee will write to Mr Butler and Ms Ormonde, both of whom have addresses in Dublin, asking why they claimed travel expenses from houses outside Dublin. The Senators will be asked to respond in writing by 10am on August 23rd and the committee will meet later that day to consider their responses.
Neither Mr Butler nor Ms Ormonde could be reached for comment last night. However, Mr Butler has previously said his home was in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, and he only stayed in his house in Foxrock, Dublin, on Seanad sitting days.
Ms Ormonde, from Donnybrook, Dublin, has said she claimed expenses from Waterford for a period when building work was being carried out on her holiday home.
A member of the committee, Senator Denis O’Donovan, who is currently without the Fianna Fáil whip, said a fortnight was a reasonable period of time to allow the Senators to respond to their peers’ queries. “If somebody came back and said we’ve a week’s holidays scheduled and we put a gun to their head, then we might be doing more harm than good,” Mr O’Donovan said.
The committee met for 5½ hours yesterday.
Meanwhile, the committee will also write to Independent Senator Rónán Mullen, asking him to respond to a complaint lodged by People Before Profit Alliance member Martin O’Sullivan.
Mr O’Sullivan’s complaint referred to an anecdote related by Mr Mullen on RTÉ’s Drivetime programme on June 3rd, when he said an elected representative had told him he should claim expenses from an address farther away than his actual address when he joined the Seanad. Mr O’Sullivan called on Mr Mullen to name the person.
Mr Mullen said the committee was doing good work and he would be happy to co-operate with it in any way he could.
“It’s one thing to take a view that it probably illustrated a certain attitude at the time, it’s another thing to put somebody else’s good reputation in issue. That would create a difficulty for me, in all honesty, but obviously I’ll look respectfully at what the committee are saying.”
The committee is chaired by Seanad Cathaoirleach Pat Moylan of Fianna Fáil. Its other members are Fine Gael leader in the Seanad Frances Fitzgerald, Labour’s Alex White, Independent Joe O’Toole, Camillus Glynn of Fianna Fáil and his colleague Mr O’Donovan.
Mr White and Mr O’Toole returned from abroad to attend the meeting. Oireachtas legal advisers were also in attendance.
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle attended the start of the meeting but then excused himself from any further deliberations. He said he was removing himself from the process because he had made public comments critical of Mr Callely.
