MINISTER FOR Tourism, Culture and Sport Mary Hanafin has expressed surprise that former Fianna Fáil senator Ivor Callely was taking a legal challenge against the committee that investigated his expenses claims.
“I am surprised that an Oireachtas member would go to court.
“I think that’s an issue that has to be considered and in dealing with this particular problem with Deputy Callely, I would have thought the Oireachtas was the place to deal with it,” Ms Hanafin said.
Former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who appointed Mr Callely to the Seanad in 2007, said: “I don’t believe in bringing these things to the law.”
Ms Hanafin and Mr Ahern were attending the official opening of the national convention centre in Dublin yesterday.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe, speaking in Mallow, Co Cork, said that while Mr Callely was entitled to follow legal advice, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the wider Fianna Fáil party had already made their opinion clear.
“Everybody is entitled to follow their own legal advices. I think for politics we’re disappointed that this has happened,” Mr O’Keeffe said.
“The Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil party has made it quite clear their dissatisfaction with the outcome.”
Speaking in Kilkenny, Tánaiste Mary Coughlan said it was Mr Callely’s “prerogative as a citizen” to go to court to clear his name.
He was “no longer a member of Fianna Fáil” and she did not wish to comment further as the matter might be sub judice.
In July, the Committee on Members’ Interests of Seanad Éireann found that Mr Callely misrepresented his normal place of residence for the purposes of claiming expenses.