Councillor uses Dáil postage for campaign launch

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore has been caught in an embarrassing ethics row after one of the party’s councillors used his free Dáil postage facility to send out local election literature.

Earlier this month, the State’s ethics watchdog warned that TDs and Senators should not provide pre-paid Oireachtas envelopes to candidates in the forthcoming local and European elections.

The Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) said the free postage facility was provided at public expense to assist TDs and senators in the performance of their duties as public representatives, and it was “entirely inappropriate” for any of them to pass the envelopes onto election candidates for personal gain.