THE personal secretary to a Minister of State has said he left the job last week due to "ill health". Mr Michael "Milo" Kelly said his resignation was not linked to questions over a £1,200 Social Welfare cheque.
Mr Kelly was personal secretary to the Minister of State for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Mr Jimmy Deenihan of Fine Gael.
The cheque was made out to an organisation chaired by Mr Kelly to fund a summer job scheme. It was returned uncashed last week after it was established that the scheme never officially took place because the only two students enrolled on it - Mr Kelly's children - had not completed the work.
Under the Student Summer Job Scheme, voluntary groups hire third-level students who are paid £600 for working 200 hours in their summer holidays.
The Tarbert Development Association in Co Kerry, chaired by Mr Kelly, applied to the Department in October, seeking payments for two students under the scheme. The Department issued a £1,200 cheque on November 12th. It was returned uncashed a week ago.
Mr Kelly, a Fine Gael activist from Mr Deenihan's Kerry North constituency, said his resignation as Mr Deenihan's secretary the previous day was not linked to the returned cheque.
Mr Kelly was involved in controversy in October 1995 when he was found to be in receipt of invalidity pension five months after starting work in Mr Deenihan's office. At the time he rejected the suggestion that he should resign, explaining that while he was working at Mr Deenihan's office, he had no contract and no salary.
From his home in Tarbert last night Mr Kelly said he did not want to discuss his departure from the post last week with The Irish Times. "You can talk to my solicitor," he said, "or take it off Kerry's Eye." Asked if the local newspaper account was accurate, he said, "It is".
The newspaper article says the cheque was discussed at a meeting of the Tarbert Development Association last week, and it was decided to return it to the Department as the "criteria" for the summer job scheme were not fulfilled.
Mr Kelly acknowledges that his two children, Michael jnr and Leonie, were the only two students enrolled on the summer job scheme, but that his son was working in Dingle and his daughter was in New York for part of the period in question.
He said they "didn't have enough time" to complete the 200 hours required, and were now both at a loss because they had not been paid for the hours they had worked under the scheme.
Mr Kelly told the paper, "I resigned due to ill health", and added that he had a heart condition.