The latest revelation about Mr Callely, emerging last week, was that he submitted expense claims for three mobile phones with invoices from a company that stopped trading more than ten years ago. Mr Callely has since admitted that the expense claims were false and returned the money, but at the same time he says he is innocent of any wrong doing.
Regarding the claims Mr Callely issued a statement that read, “The circumstances under which receipts were issued are being investigated. He does not know how these receipts were issued by a company that had ceased trading.
“It is now clear that these claims should not have been made. He regrets the difficulties that this has created, all of which will be fully dealt with in the course of the investigation and he will be assisting with any enquiry concerning same.”
This is not the first time Mr Callely has been investigated. Another investigation which concluded last month examined the veracity of expense claims made by Mr Callely incurred from commuting from a house he owns hundreds of miles away from the Irish parliament.
The investigation tried to uncover why Mr Callely saw it necessary to claim expenses from this home when his normal family residence was less than five miles from the Irish parliament.
The Senate Committee conducting the investigation reported that Mr Callely had misrepresented his normal place of residence for the purpose of claiming extra travel expenses. Mr Callely “strenuously” rejected the findings of the report.
The speed at which this investigation concluded is unusual for Irish politics where tribunals investigating corruption can last for years at a cost of tens of millions to the Irish taxpayer. However, the paltry penalty issued to Mr Callely, 20 days suspension from the Senate without pay, caused further anger among the public who are being warned daily of new taxes to be introduced in the looming October budget.
What is also causing anger is Mr Callely’s refusal to resign or accept that any wrong doing was done on his part. The Irish political system has no method to force a senator to resign from his position.
Mr Callely was appointed to his current position as senator by former Irish Premier Bertie Ahern. This was after a failed attempt to get elected to the parliament in the 2007 election.
The lack of public confidence in Mr Callely in 2007 was likely linked to the fact that he was forced to resign as a member of the Irish cabinet because it was discovered that he had his house painted for free by a building contractor; the same contractor who had previously successfully won public contracts.
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern is currently under investigation by the Mahon Tribunal in Dublin regarding corruption over irregularities in planning matters and payments. Mr Ahern has categorically denied any wrong doing.
Source of Investigation
Public interest in how MP’s were claiming expenses was sparked in 2010 when it was uncovered that the speaker of the Irish parliament, John O’Donoghue, had claimed 200,000 euro of expenses in a two year period.
Among Mr Donoghue’s expenses were claims for over $27,000 for St Patrick’s Day trips in 2008 and 2009, where he attended celebrations in Washington, Houston, New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston in the US.
Although Mr Donoghue has since resigned from his position as speaker of the house, he is still a sitting Member of Parliament.
Mr Donoghue’s lavish expense claims sparked a stream of requests under the Freedom of Information Act that led to the discovery of the unusual claims by Mr Callely.
However, the public scrutiny on expenses that ensued from the cases of Mr Donoghue and Mr Callely do not appear to have been noticed by some members of the current Irish cabinet.
Only last week it was discovered that the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, used the government jet to travel to a speaking event in Co Donegal. While on the jet it was uncovered that Mr Dempsey had his chauffeur drive his government car from Dublin to Donegal, the total trip costing tens of thousands to the Irish taxpayer. A normal flight and a taxi would have cost a few hundred euro.
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