ANALYSIS:Ivor Callely's room for manoeuvre is narrowing day by day
WHATEVER ELSE may happen to him, Ivor Callely will undoubtedly make his way into a standard collection of Irish political phrases with his remark to the recent Seanad investigation that, “Yesterday’s history, and tomorrow’s a mystery”.
The former minister of state’s political future is looking gloomier by the day. Green Party TD Paul Gogarty began the week by complaining to the clerk of the Seanad about the latest documents to emerge relating to the Senator’s mobile phone expenses.
That has now led to a decision to reconvene the Seanad Committee on Members’ Interests on August 31st where the allegation that Callely claimed almost €3,000 based on receipts from a mobile phone company that had long ago ceased trading, will be examined.
Arising from the publicity given to his committee complaint, Gogarty came under public pressure for further action and has now made a formal complaint to the Garda Síochána.
Having pressured him into resigning the party whip in June, Fianna Fáil has now suspended Callely from party membership pending an internal investigation of possible “conduct unbecoming”.
The procedure under which this was done remains unclear but it is fairly obvious that expulsion looms. It is a measure of how much public and political attitudes have changed that the “conduct unbecoming” which led to Desmond O’Malley’s expulsion from the party in February 1985 was the future Progressive Democrat leader’s decision to abstain instead of voting against a Fine Gael-Labour Bill to liberalise access to contraception.
Conformity to conservative Catholic norms is no longer the issue.
The public nowadays demands that its politicians be honest and transparent in their financial dealings and the alleged abuses on the part of Callely have clearly created much anger.
Where does the Callely case go from here?
Independent Senator Joe O’Toole, a prominent member of the Committee on Members’ Interests has written to the committee chairman and Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Pat Moylan, raising a number of questions.
O’Toole points out that any question of possible criminality is a matter for the Garda authorities, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the courts.
The Seanad committee is likely to confine itself to potential contraventions of legislation on ethics in public office.
Clearly anxious to get prompt action in this respect, O’Toole has called for an early meeting of the committee, even if it means providing teleconferencing facilities for members who are away on family holidays.
Whatever about the timing, there is expected to be a second Callely investigation along the lines of the initial probe which determined that he had claimed expenses for travelling from Cork when, in fact, Dublin was his “normal place of residence”.
Among other things, the committee called for “a clearer and more robust definition” of that phrase.
O’Toole expresses strong concern that, although the initial complaint about travel expenses was also made to the Garda authorities, on that occasion they reportedly directed the complainant to the Seanad secretariat.
O’Toole firmly believes the Garda authorities should also have pursued the matter independently and he stresses that, regardless of any future committee probe, “matters of crime and punishment are still the responsibility of the gardaí and courts”.
He will doubtless be reassured by the news last night that Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has written to clerk of the Seanad Deirdre Lane “seeking clarification” as a result of complaints from Gogarty and others.
It also appears that, since the relevant expenses claims refer to a period when Callely was still a member of the Dáil, it will become a matter for the Houses of the Oireachtas Commission.