Callely tried West Cork expenses claim in 1994

IVOR CALLELY tried to claim expenses from his West Cork holiday home in 1994 but was rebuffed, a Seanad probe has heard.

The detail emerged yesterday as Mr Callely continued to insist the West Cork house was his principal residence but admitted he did not own it. A cross-party Seanad committee is investigating the fact that following his appointment as a senator in 2007, Mr Callely claimed €81,000 in travel-related expenses from the Kilcrohane house rather than his family home in Clontarf, Dublin.

Speaking at the committee’s latest hearing yesterday, Senator Joe O’Toole, said in 1994, when Mr Callely was a TD, he had similarly attempted to claim expenses from West Cork only to be refused by the relevant authorities. “It was rejected at that stage by the Department of Finance, and I think that’s important.”