ANALYSIS:Brian Cowen has no power to dismiss Ivor Callely. The law sets out just a small number of circumstances in which a senator may be disqualified from office, writes DEAGLÁN DE BRÉADÚN
DESPITE THE fact that Ivor Callely was originally nominated to Seanad Éireann in 2007 by then taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the current head of government, Brian Cowen, has no power to dismiss the Senator from the upper house.
The relevant legislation is the Electoral Act 1992 which sets out the circumstances under which members of the Dáil can be disqualified to sit in the House. Since Article 18.2 of Bunreacht na hÉireann / The Irish Constitution stipulates that all members of the Seanad must also be eligible for Dáil membership, the same conditions apply to Senators.
For example, someone who holds, or is appointed to, a position as a judge, a garda, a full-time member of the Defence Forces or, unless an exception is made, a civil servant, cannot be a member of either House.
The same applies to “a person of unsound mind”; someone serving a jail term of more than six months or penal servitude for any period; or an undischarged bankrupt. As long as any member of the current Seanad does not come under one or more of the above categories he or she can continue as a Senator, until the next general election at least.
More immediately relevant is the Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Éireann which investigated complaints by two members of the public and issued a finding that Mr Callely had misrepresented his normal place of residence as being in Cork instead of Dublin when claiming travel expenses.
The committee recommended that the Senator be suspended for 20 sitting day without pay and called on him to “regularise and make good his allowance affairs”. It also called for “a clearer and more robust definition of ‘normal place of residence”.
The Seanad approved the report and that was the end of the matter until fresh allegations emerged in the Mail on Sunday regarding mobile phone expense claims by the Senator. Green Party TD Paul Gogarty wrote yesterday afternoon to the Clerk of the Seanad and the chairman of the Committee on Members’ Interests calling for an investigation of these allegations.
While refusing to comment on individual cases, an Oireachtas spokesman said: “Any complaints regarding the conduct of Oireachtas members are subject to the relevant Members’ Interests Committee under the provisions of the Ethics in Public Office Acts. “All complaints made in this regard are given due consideration by the relevant committee in accordance with the legislation, who may then make a report to the relevant House, including recommendations for any appropriate action,” the spokesman said.
Without in any way prejudging the outcome of any future inquiry, it is worth noting as a general point of information that, under the Standards in Public Office Act 2001, if a committee finds in the course of an investigation that an offence may have been committed it is obliged to report the matter to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The DPP in turn is required to notify the committee whether any proceedings have been initiated. Although Mr Callely himself could not be contacted at time of writing for comment, it appears that the issue of his expense claims will be on the political agenda for some time yet.