Published: Wednesday, 11th August, 2010 5:00pm

Callely expenses controversy is no joke

The expenses controversy surrounding Fianna Fáil Senator Ivor Callely has gone beyond a joke. That he has still not resigned his position in the Seanád following the latest debacle is incredible. Fianna Fáil have suspended him pending the outcome of internal investigations but they can't force him to resign his Seanád seat.

The latest storm - concerning a claim of almost €2,900 for mobile equipment from a company that had ceased trading eight years previously - should surely be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

This follows the outrageous claims for over €80,000 since 2007 for overnight and travel expenses to a holiday home in Co. Cork, which he claimed was his principal residence. The house was 370km from Leinster House, while the senator's family home was just down the road in Clontarf and he had a constituency office in Dublin North Central, where he regularly held clinics.

Yet Mr. Callely claimed the €140 a night 'overnight' allowance on hundreds of occasions when attending the Seanád. As for the figure of €140 a night... that's another scandal, you can get a hotel bed in Dublin, with breakfast, for quarter the price.

These 'expenses' are all in addition to an €80,000 a year salary. You couldn't make it up. And all this at a time when almost 467,000 people are on the live register, some 8,000 of them in Co. Cavan. In the last month alone, some 400 extra people have signed on in Cavan. How can Mr. Callely justify remaining in office when tens of thousands of families in Ireland are on their knees and the government is seeking to make further cuts and tax hikes in the December budget.

Mr. Callely claimed the expenses claimed for his home in Cork were "within the regulations" though the investigating committee found otherwise and he's been instructed to pay the money back. He also claims that the mobile expenses were submitted "in good faith" and he has already refunded this money.

This is coming from the man who in 2005 was forced to resign his junior ministry in the Department of Transport after it emerged that while he was chairman of the Eastern Health Board in the 1990s his house in Clontarf was painted for free by a major painting firm. The company had been carrying out refurbishment of the board's headquarters at the time. The job on Callely's home was estimated to be worth about €3,000 and he claimed he forgot to pay the bill.

Does anyone see a trend emerging?

Mr. Callely has now been given two weeks to explain the latest invoices to a Seanád inquiry. Certainly he should explain but there's no question that he should resign his Seanád seat. The saga, if nothing else, demonstrates that a massive overhaul of the expenses system for public representatives is urgently required.