Callely was paid highest allowances last year

FORMER SENATOR Ivor Callely’s High Court victory in his expenses row with the Oireachtas led to him receiving the highest allowances in the Seanad last year.

New figures show Mr Callely was paid €39,875 for the last 10 months of 2010 under the new parliamentary standard allowance scheme introduced in March last year.

Mr Callely became embroiled in controversy last year when it was revealed he was claiming travel and subsistence expenses from his holiday home in west Cork and not from his political base and home in Clontarf in Dublin.

The new information, posted on the Oireachtas website last night, shows Mr Callely made all his claims for 2010 on the same date in February 2011. This was shortly after he won his High Court case, which ruled a Seanad committee had acted outside its powers in disciplinary proceedings it had taken against him.

Under the new system, TDs and Senators are paid travel allowances based on their distance from Leinster House. In his claim for the 10 months of 2010, Mr Callely declares that the zone of his residence is 12, the furthest distance from the Oireachtas. This indicates that he claimed for travelling from the holiday home near Schull in west Cork in 2010.

The Oireachtas payment figures for 2010 only cover the period since the new allowance system became operational between March and December.

The highest allowances paid in the Dáil were to three TDs, all of whom were paid more than €52,000 in allowances for the last 10 months of 2002. They were the former Independent TD Jackie Healy Rae (Kerry South), former Cork South West deputy PJ Sheehan and the Donegal South West TD Dinny McGinley, now a Minister of State.

A number of TDs and Senators made repayments to the Oireachtas for not reaching the required number of attendance days to be paid the full allowance. The biggest repayment of €12,197 was made by former Fianna Fáil TD for Donegal North East Jim McDaid, which suggested he was not present for at least 50 per cent of sitting days in 2010.

Limerick Fianna Fáil TD Willie O’Dea also made a repayment of €5,339 of €28,101 claimed under the travel and accommodation allowance. Mr O’Dea resigned as minister for defence in 2010 following a controversy over defamatory comments he made about a Sinn Féin councillor in Limerick.

Others included John Browne (FF, Wexford, €274); Beverley Flynn (FF, Mayo, €1,146); Pádraic McCormack (FG, Galway West, €217); Christy O’Sullivan (FF, Cork South West, €605) and then senator Brian Ó Domhnaill (FF, Donegal South West, €2,943).

An Oireachtas spokesman said last night it had published detail of payments for 2010 as part of a policy of providing details of allowance payments to members in a clear and transparent manner.

“Members are provided with an allowance up-front but under this new system, they return some of their allowance if do not attend Leinster House for the required number of days each year,” the spokesman said. “This helps to make the system more efficient as well as transparent.