SPENDING OF more than €2,600 on phone calls from Leinster House to help Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae win a celebrity television contest is to be scrutinised by two Dáil committees.
Ceann Comhairle Seán Barrett led condemnations yesterday of the use of a Leinster House phone to make 3,636 premium-rate calls to vote for Mr Healy-Rae in RTÉ's Celebrities Go Wildcontest in 2007.
Mr Barrett described it as “an outrageous abuse of facilities” and said the money should be repaid. He promised to ensure the matter was addressed at the next meeting of the Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which he chairs.
The Oireachtas wrote to Mr Healy-Rae’s father Jackie when the calls came to light in 2007 but took no action when he failed to reply.
“As the calls could not be attributed to any particular person, there was no basis to pursue the matter further and no further action could be taken,” a spokesman said.
Fine Gael TD Olivia Mitchell said she would be raising the issue when the Dáil Committee on Members’ Interests met for the first time today. She said she could not understand how the Oireachtas was unable to say which phone or phones the calls were made from in Leinster House.
Another committee member, Labour’s Jack Wall, said the system had hit “rock bottom” if public money was being used to support “vanity contests”. However, he questioned whether the committee would be able to deal with the matter as Mr Healy-Rae was not a TD at the time.
Mr Healy-Rae yesterday denied any knowledge of the calls which were made in late October 2007 when he was a county councillor taking part in the contest.
His father Jackie, who was then the TD for Kerry South, also denied any involvement.
The calls to a premium rate number, which cost 60 cents plus VAT, were ultimately paid for by the taxpayer. The abuse came to light when the Oireachtas phone service provider, Eircom, noticed a surge in calls to the number.
Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore said if phones were found to have been used excessively, the money should be refunded.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan described it as “part of the political gamesmanship that Deputy Healy-Rae’s family have been involved in for a long period of time and which has now been exposed”.
However, Michael Healy-Rae said he had no hand, act or part in the calls and pointed out that he was taking part in the contest for the week and did not have access to a phone.
Jackie Healy-Rae said: “If I was paid in gold and silver, I could not have made them, because I was constantly up and down to the Dáil chamber to vote with the government at the time.”
RTÉ, in a statement, said the calls made from Leinster House did not make a material difference to the outcome of the competition, as Mr Healy-Rae outpolled his nearest rival by two to one.
The Oireachtas spokesman confirmed that TDs enjoyed free local, national, mobile, international and premium-rate calls and their phone usage was not logged “for reasons of privacy and confidentiality”. Because the calls were not logged, it had no way of telling who had made them.