Commission finds FG Senator breached public office standards legislation

A FINE Gael Senator has broken political standards legislation by failing to provide evidence of tax compliance to the Standards in Public Office Commission.

The commission yesterday issued details of its investigation into Senator Pat O’Neill.

He was obliged by law to supply the commission with evidence of tax compliance within nine months of his election, by January 26th.

Mr O’Neill was elected to the agricultural panel of the Seanad for Fine Gael in April 2011.

To date he has not given either a tax clearance certificate or an application statement (showing he has requested a tax clearance certificate from Revenue) to the commission, it said yesterday.

The commission had notified Mr O’Neill in April that it would be investigating him. It told him that it would “consider an explanation he may wish to provide in relation to the contravention”.

The commission had received no reply from the Senator, it said yesterday.

The commission has phoned his office on four occasions and has written three letters since the January deadline passed.

In February Mr O’Neill gave the commission a statutory declaration (a self-declaration of tax compliance). However, politicians also need to provide either a tax clearance certificate or an application statement.

Yesterday Mr O’Neill told The Irish Times that he had paid Revenue in full last week and had applied for a tax clearance certificate.

Mr O’Neill said he would be writing to the commission on Monday.

He had been paying off capital gains tax over the past few months, he said, but it had not been cleared because something held it up. However, the balance was paid to Revenue last week, he said.

The commission has sent its report to the Seanad’s committee on members’ interests.

The actions the Seanad committee can propose include noting the contents of the report or censuring Mr O’Neill, suspending him for up to 30 days, which can include withholding his salary.

Fine Gael said it was a matter that the party would “investigate fully and deal with expeditiously” and that it was treating with “the utmost seriousness”.

The commission said 17 Senators had broken the Standards in Public Office Act by failing to file the documents in time. However, relevant documents had been since received by all Senators apart from Pat O’Neill.