Dan Boyle’s new book is the first insider account of the Fianna Fáil-Green government and the economic and banking disasters that struck on its watch. Today, in the second and final extract from the book, he outlines the central role which he and social media site Twitter played in the 2010 resignation of Fianna Fáil defence minister Willie O’Dea

ANY attempt by Ivor Callely to resume his Seanad seat today cannot be tolerated and must be blocked by the Oireachtas authorities, a fellow senator has said.

A EUROPEAN Commission letter to a Fine Gael senator about which loans may be acquired by NAMA had complicated matters, a High Court judge said yesterday.

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen was urged to intervene directly in the Ivor Callely affair last night, after one of his ministers called on the senator to quit the Oireachtas.

SENATORS investigating mobile phone expense claims by Ivor Callely are expected to be asked today to adjourn their inquiry for two weeks to give the embattled politician time to seek legal advice.

SEANAD watchdogs are to fast-track their probe into the forgery allegations engulfing Ivor Callely.

Fianna Fáil last night suspended senator Ivor Callely from the party as it launched its own investigation into the politician’s controversial expenses.

DEFENCE Minister Tony Killeen has said former parliamentary party colleague Ivor Callely should hand back any of the Seanad expenses to which he was not entitled.

IVOR CALLELY was last night given a 20-day suspension from the Seanad for deliberately misrepresenting his normal place of residence in order to claim travel expenses.

THE bill to provide civil partnerships and increased rights for same-sex couples has been passed by the Oireachtas but only after an extraordinarily ill-tempered debate in the Seanad.

The Seanad will not be meeting next week to discuss the expenses scandal surrounding two of its members.

FIANNA Fáil moved to isolate Ivor Callely last night after a probe was launched into his travel expenses by the Oireachtas.

A standards watchdog today said there was enough evidence on controversial expenses claims by Senator Ivor Callely to warrant an inquiry.

A Seanad committee has now begun investigating the expenses claimed by Senator Ivor Callely.

A Fine Gael senator has been asked to withdraw remarks suggesting a "fraud" may have been committed in relation to Ivor Callely's expenses.

THE Ombudsman has disputed evidence given by former minister and Fianna Fáil backbench TD Frank Fahey to an Oireachtas committee in the latest development in a stand-off between the Government and the watchdog’s office.

FINE Gael last night welcomed moves that could see Anglo Irish Bank wound up over the next 20 years.

FOUR out of five senators are double-jobbing or have extra incomes on top of the €70,000-plus paid to them by the State for working just three days a week, 34 weeks a year in the Upper House.

Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan, who began raising the controversy that ultimately led with Willie O'Dea resignation from Cabinet this week, said today that he takes "no pleasure" from the matter.

The religious orders criticised in the Ryan Report are reportedly seeking to have their legal bills covered by the taxpayer.

FEARS are growing that the first transfer of loans worth an estimated €19 billion to NAMA will not take place on February 12 as intended.

THE Government came close to embarrassment yesterday when it escaped defeat in a Dáil vote by a narrow margin and lost an initial count in a Seanad vote.

THE late writer, Hugh Leonard, received the traditional applause of the theatre world at his funeral mass in Dalkey yesterday at what mourners were told was his “final curtain call”.

BRIAN LENIHAN has been ranked the second-worst finance minister out of 19 European countries by an expert group of leading economists and analysts.

THE primacy of EU law has been given as a reason for voting against the Lisbon Treaty.

ONE of the world’s most famous surrealist paintings, by Belgian artist René Magritte, depicts a pipe with the words underneath: “ceci n’est pas une pipe” — this is not a pipe.

BERTIE AHERN’S bid to block the Mahon corruption probe was branded a “political stroke” by opponents last night as it emerged three High Court judges will decide the case.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern’s court challenge to the Mahon Tribunal is “the act of a desperate politician”, Fine Gael said last night.

An official public standards watchdog is today considering whether to investigate Bertie Ahern’s tax affairs after Fine Gael lodged a formal complaint against the Taoiseach.

FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny is today expected to make his strongest attack yet on Bertie Ahern as the party seeks to maintain the pressure on the embattled Taoiseach.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is expected to come under more political pressure over his tax affairs this week.

THE Taoiseach’s attack on the Mahon Tribunal was a “self-serving” and “desperate attempt” to divert attention from the serious questions surrounding the money he took, said the opposition yesterday.

IN hurricane season, you track the storm as it moves on. The place that was devastated yesterday is becalmed today. Some place further up the line is now bearing the brunt of its fury.

FIANNA Fáil spent a staggering €3.65 million, or €4.25 on each and every one of the 858,600 votes it got, in general election 2007, a report from the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) shows.

THE Taoiseach yesterday branded a Fine Gael TD a “loudmouth” after he accused him of a “sinister” motive in bringing forward tribunal legislation ahead of his return to Dublin Castle.

BROADCASTER Eamon Dunphy has given dramatic evidence to the Mahon Tribunal appearing to support the allegation that property developer Owen O’Callaghan bribed Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

FINE Gael launched a stinging attack on “glaring contradictions” in Taoiseach Bertie Ahern’s explanations of his personal finances last night as the Mahon Tribunal was beginning a week of explosive hearings.

THERE was a time when the kit for an aspiring TD consisted of a soapbox, a megaphone, a couple of posters and a wrist as strong as a girder from shaking so many hands.

THE FG/Labour-controlled Dun Laoghaire/Rathdown County Council apparently was the only local authority in the country that managed successfully to update its electoral register on time and without making widespread errors or incorrect deletions.

IRISH-BORN children deported with their parents will return and sue the State for breaches of their constitutional rights, a legal expert predicted yesterday.

A LANDMARK case in Europe supporting tenancy rights for gay couples will have implications here when Ireland ratifies the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) in December.