Ahern urged to order Callely expenses probe
Justice Minister Dermot Ahern was tonight urged to order a Garda investigation into Senator Ivor Callely after fresh allegations he used forged documents to claim expenses.
As pressure mounted on the controversial politician to resign, Fine Gael said the damage done to the public perception of politics was immense.
The senator was suspended from the Seanad last month without pay for 20 days after an inquiry into his expenses found he intentionally misrepresented where he lived for the purpose of claiming allowances, worth €81,000.
He now also faces allegations he claimed around €3,000 for mobile phones from a company that had gone out of business.
Fellow Senator Eugene Regan, Fine Gael’s justice spokesman in the Seanad, said no rational explanation had been provided by Mr Ahern or Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy as to why a probe cannot be carried out.
“The suggestion that a formal complaint has to be made to the gardaí before it can take action has no basis in law,” Senator Regan said.
“If an attack takes place in the street where a person is brutally injured, the guards do not have to wait until a complaint is made to pursue the matter. The same applies here.”
A Garda spokesman said it does not comment on any named individuals.
Fianna Fáil figures have already urged Mr Callely to consider his position, including veteran TD Mary O’Rourke.
A Seanad investigation last month found Mr Callely was intentionally misrepresenting where he lived for the purpose of claiming allowances.
After hours of deliberating over evidence gathered at a number of public hearings, it described his actions as “serious and grave”.
They said did he did not act in good faith when he claimed his normal place of residence was his former holiday home in Kilcrohane, west Cork – rather than his self-confessed “family home” in Clontarf, north Dublin.
In the wake of the latest revelations Independent Senator David Norris said the good work of the Seanad was being undermined.
“It is a great pity that the work done by decent members of the senate, and they are the majority, should be so undermined in this way but it seems to me that if these reports are correct they certainly point towards criminal matters,” he said.
Sinn Féin’s Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to demand Mr Callely’s immediate resignation.
“Ivor Callely was a Taoiseach’s nominee to the Seanad and in light of the ongoing controversy surrounding him it is now up to the Taoiseach to demand his resignation,” Mr Ó Caoláin said.
“He has so far received no sanction from either the Fianna Fáil party or the Taoiseach.”
