THE TRIAL of Galway county councillor Michael Fahy on seven counts of fraud and attempted theft from Galway County Council over the alleged misappropriation of public funds for the erection of a mile of fencing on his own private farm has begun at Galway Circuit Criminal Court.
Mr Fahy (57), Caherduff Road, Ardrahan, Co Galway, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. A jury has been sworn in and the trial is expected to last several days.
Conor Fahy, prosecuting, said it would be the State's case that Mr Fahy had works carried out on his private lands while a community involvement scheme (CIS) was taking place on a public road leading to his farm during 2001 and 2002. The scheme, he said, had been sanctioned by Galway County Council for road-widening. While this work was intended to be of benefit to the local community, Mr Fahy had taken the opportunity to get works carried out on his lands under the scheme which were for his "sole benefit".
The barrister said the county council had sanctioned and paid €5,624.43 for works carried out under the scheme in 2001 and a further €9,603 in 2002. He said there was no problem with the councillor's involvement in the scheme at that stage, but on March 15th, 2002, the council received an invoice from fencing contractors, Byrne Fencing Ltd, for €7,055.15, which itemised works purported to have been carried out under the CIS in the Caherduff area in 2001.
Newly-appointed area engineer at the time John Costelloe would say he spoke to Mr Fahy about this invoice and that he told him it was for completion of works during the CIS in 2001. He told the engineer that the council's funding allocation for the work was expended and he wanted to allocate his notice of motion money for the completion of the scheme. Mr Costelloe accepted the councillor's explanation and sanctioned payment of the invoice on May 2002.
Mr Fahy said subsequent investigations by both the council and gardaí revealed that this was payment of money for works that were never approved or sanctioned by the council.
He said that when Mr Fahy submitted another invoice in August 2003, for €7,523.91, and later looked for his notice of motion money to be allocated to cover that invoice, the area engineer in Gort became suspicious and contacted his superiors. Both Mr Costelloe and his senior colleague John Diskin visited the Caherduff road works. Council officials were notified when it became apparent no CIS works had been approved for 2003 and invoices should not have been submitted.
The work, itemised in the latest invoice submitted by the councillor, could not be identified by the council engineers "on the ground" and "more alarming" discoveries were made by them during the course of the subsequent investigation.
The court heard evidence from retired council administrative officer Daniel Barrett that a Garda investigation began into the allocation of council funding for the community scheme at Caherduff Road following a request made by a reporter under the Freedom of Information Act in June 2004, regarding the allocation of funding for the scheme.
Mr Barrett said a CIS had been sanctioned for a half-mile widening of Caherduff Road in 2001 and 2002, on the application of Mr Fahy and his neighbour, Anthony Thompson, but no such scheme was sought by the men or sanctioned by the council for 2003.
The court heard that in June 2003, however, Mr Fahy delivered an invoice to the council's area office in Gort, from Byrne Fencing Ltd, for €7,523.91 for fencing and the completion of works at Caherduff Road. On June 24th, 2003, Mr Fahy wrote to the council asking that €7,523.91 be allocated from his own councillor's notice of motion funding allocation for the completion of works at Caherduff.
Mr Barrett told barrister Mr Fahy that each councillor was given a yearly allocation taken from money collected from rates, known as notice of motion money, which he or she could allocate towards local community schemes. If their allocation, which can run into thousands of euro depending on the yearly allocation, is not spent within the year, it is returned to council coffers for redistribution the following year.
The trial continues today.