The former Minister of State, Mr Ned O'Keeffe, is to make a submission to the Dβil committee charged with deciding whether to sanction him for breaches of the Ethics in Public Office Act.
The Committee on Members' Interests decided last night to defer a decision after receiving a request from the Co Cork Fianna Fβil TD to be allowed to make a case to them. They are to write to Mr O'Keeffe to ask if he is still breaching a part of the Act. Last week the Public Offices Commission issued a report stating that it had upheld two of the six complaints made against Mr O'Keeffe.
It found that while Minister of State for agriculture, he had failed to disclose, in the annual declaration made by Ministers, additional interests held by his wife, Veronica, his son, Patrick, and his daughter-in-law, Veronica O'Keeffe, in Ballylough Milling Ltd, Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Committee chairman Mr Tony Killeen said he would ask Mr O'Keeffe if he had complied with the request that he "discontinue the breach" in relation to additional interests, or if he intends doing so.