Hearing told its result can alter balance of Dail power

The result of the Public Offices Commission's hearing into alleged breaches of ethics legislation by Fianna Fβil TD and former…

The result of the Public Offices Commission's hearing into alleged breaches of ethics legislation by Fianna Fβil TD and former minister of state for Agriculture, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, had the potential to affect the balance of power in the Dβil, his barrister said yesterday.

Mr John Rogers SC told the hearing, the first of its kind, that the Ethics in Public Office Act gave the commission "very significant power" when it delivered its report. The maximum penalty, if a politician is found in contravention of the Act, is to be suspended from the Dβil for 30 days.

Mr Rogers said this definitely should not and did not deserve to happen. If it resulted in a motion being put before the Dβil it had "the potential to unseat a deputy" and disenfranchise his constituents.

Mr O'Keeffe, he said, had been waiting almost a year for the hearing to take place. He attended "unfortunately" as Dβil deputy rather than as a minister because he had had to resign due to what occurred. He came to the hearing "sullied by events to date".

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The commission chairman. Mr Kevin Murphy, the Ombudsman, explained that the hearing was for the purpose of determining whether Mr O'Keeffe, who served as a minister of state at the Department of Agriculture until last February, had contravened certain sections of the Ethics in Public Office Act.

Mr Murphy said the act requires a minister of state who proposes to speak or vote in proceedings in the Dβil in specified circumstances to make a declaration of interest before or during a speech, or, if not speaking, before voting, if an interest has not already been disclosed in the relevant Register of Interests of Members of Dβil ╔ireann.

In November, Mr O'Keeffe voted against a Labour Party private member's motion calling for a ban on the feeding of meat-and-bone meal to all animals.

Mr Frank Clarke SC, counsel for the commission, said that while an observer of that debate may have known there was a feed compounder on the O'Keeffe pig farm in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, they would not have known the minister was the holder of a special meat-and-bone-meal licence, one of very few issued by the Department of Agriculture each year, which was "under attack" in the same motion.

The hearing was told there was a mill on the O'Keeffe farm, Ballylough Milling Ltd, of which Mr O'Keeffe is a director, and in which he held shares exceeding £10,000. It was licensed to purchase and use meat-and-bone meal which was added to feed for the pigs.

It was also alleged that the deputy failed to disclose in the Statement of Additional Interests in 1998, 1999 and 2000 the interests of his wife and children in Ballylough Milling Ltd, and that such interests could have materially influence his performance as minister of state. During his time as minister the licence was renewed by the Department of Agriculture on three occasions.

Mr Rodgers said: "Mr Clarke seems to be saying the mere fact that you are given a function that you have to declare an interest connected with that function. But we heard from Mr Malone (secretary-general of the Department of Agriculture) that the Minister had no function whatsoever to do with licensing."

The chairman Mr Murphy had earlier explained that the commission had been in communication with Mr O'Keeffe in December when it received complaints from Mr Ruair∅ Quinn and the Fine Gael deputy Mr Alan Dukes on the matter.

The hearing concluded yesterday.