Callely resigns from Fianna Fáil

UNDER-FIRE senator Ivor Callely last night resigned from Fianna Fáil minutes before an internal committee ruled his actions constituted conduct unbecoming a member of the party.

Fianna Fáil had formed a committee to examine the controversy surrounding Mr Callely’s claim of nearly €3,000 in mobile phone expenses using documents from a company that ceased trading in 1994.

The senator and his legal team yesterday attended that committee and asked for an adjournment.

The committee refused and continued to deliberate. However, before it could reach a conclusion Mr Callely informed the party he was resigning and he would take no further part in the committee proceedings.

“The committee proceeded in the absence of Senator Callely to conclude its investigation and made a finding of conduct unbecoming a member of Fianna Fáil,” a press release from the party stated shortly after 9.30pm.

It did not spell out how Mr Callely’s conduct had been “unbecoming”.

However, it is understood that the committee made its finding on the basis that he had failed to provide any explanation of the receipts since the story first broke at the start of the month.

Just minutes before the party press release was issued, the senator himself issued a press statement through a team of solicitors.

It confirmed his resignation was due to the refusal of the party to grant the adjournment “for the purposes of refuting the allegations made against him and because of the refusal of the committee to particularise alleged conduct ‘unbecoming a member’ of the Fianna Fáil party”.

“Senator Callely considers the committee’s findings as constituting a denial of fair procedures to allow him to vindicate his name and refute the allegations made against him,” it continued.

“After Senator Callely’s dedication to the Fianna Fáil party in public life over a period of 25 years, he is devastated at the refusal to accord him fair procedures which makes his resignation inevitable because to have acted otherwise would have afforded legitimacy to an enquiry that denied him fair procedures.”

It said the senator will now concentrate on clearing his name before the Seanad Select Committee “and will be making no further statement at this time”.

Mr Callely, already suspended from the Seanad for 20 days after its watchdog committee found he had deliberately misrepresented his normal place of residence, is also being probed by the Seanad’s Members’ Interests Committee over allegations he did not reveal his interest in a number of properties on the annual register Oireachtas members must fill out.