Minister upstages bosses with €13,000 photo splurge

PUBLICITY-hungry junior minister Ivor Callely’s office ran up a photography bill three times as big as that of his Cabinet boss while he was at the Health Department.

Mr Callely’s spending on photos totalled €13,542 in the first nine months of 2004 - dwarfing the €4,200 spent by then Health Minister Micheál Martin.

Mr Callely’s office accounted for more than two thirds of health’s €19,700 ministerial photography spend in 2004, even though he only served in the department for three-quarters of the year before being moved to Transport in the September reshuffle.