Oireachtas body to seek legal advice on Cullen inquiry

The Standards in Public Office has failed to reach a decision on whether or not to investigate the Minister for Transport, Mr Cullen, over contracts for one of his political supporters.

The six-member Commission met this afternoon to discuss Mr Cullen's role in securing public relations contracts for Monica Leech, She has earned over €300,000 since 1997 from contracts awarded to her by the Office of Public Works and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The Commission chairman, Mr Justice Matthew Smith, issued an order of discovery for relevant documents to the OPW and Department of the Environment. These documents were studied by the six members during their four-hour meeting this afternoon.

They also considered the findings of the Quigley Report, which was produced by leading civil servant Mr Dermot Quigley and published last week.

This report exonerated Mr Cullen of any wrongdoing, but made a number of recommendations about how contracts are awarded by State bodies to private consultancy firms.

Following the meeting, the Commission released a statement saying "it was decided to seek further legal advice in the matter. On receipt of that advice, the Standards Commission will meet again to continue its deliberations."

A spokesman told ireland.comit was uncertain how long it would take for a final decision to be reached, but insisted "the situation would be moved on as quickly as possible".

If the Commission decides to conduct a full inquiry, Mr Cullen's ministerial future will come under threat as he will then face calls to step down.

Chaired by Mr Justice Smith, the Commission includes Mr John Purcell, Comptroller and Auditor General; Ms Emily O'Reilly, Ombudsman; Mr Kieran Coughlan, Clerk of the Dáil; Ms Deirdre Lane, Clerk of the Seanad, and Mr Liam Kavanagh, former Labour TD and minister.