Pressure on Healy-Rae to repay calls cost

PRESSURE mounted on independent TD Michael Healy-Rae to pay back the costs of thousands of phone calls made from inside Dáil Éireann that helped him win a TV reality show.

It emerged last night that his father Jackie, a TD before him, failed for three years to respond to an Oireachtas inquiry seeking his comments on Leinster House phone facilities having been used to help his son win the show.

The call costs amounted to over €2,600.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore backed demands for a probe into the misuse of Dáil Éireann’s phone facilities. “I think it’s something that the Oireachtas Commission is going to have to look into... if there was inappropriate use of the Oireachtas telephone system, excessive use of it in a particular way, then it is my view that the money should be refunded.”

The Kerry South TD has denied he had anything to do with the 3,600 phone votes that helped him win RTÉ’s Celebrities Go Wild show in October 2007.

He was a Kerry county councillor at the time.

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett last night said the incident was “an outrageous abuse of facilities”.

“I am calling for the money to be repaid in full immediately,” he said, adding the matter would be raised at the Oireachtas Committee on Procedures and Privileges.

The Oireachtas said the incident was the only time its telecoms provider had reported a spike in calls and the number was blocked within an hour of the alert.

But a statement added: “Because it was established that the number in question was a number to vote for Michael Healy-Rae, the Houses of the Oireachtas wrote to then Deputy Jackie Healy-Rae making him aware of the circumstances of the calls and seeking his comments. No response was received. As the calls could not be attributed to any particular person, there was no basis to pursue the matter further and no further action could be taken.”

The letter was sent on March 12, 2008.

Michael Healy-Rae took over his father’s seat in this year’s election.

When contacted yesterday, Jackie Healy-Rae said: “I know nothing about that. Talk to my son. It’s not my business, it’s his business.”

Michael Healy-Rae said that he had no part in the calls, as he was on the show at the time. “I’m not in any way saying it was right but it was not my responsibility because I was the one person in Ireland that could have had nothing to do with that because I was completely out of contact.”

The Oireachtas said calls are not logged for privacy reasons.

Some 3,636 calls were made costing 60c each, plus VAT, to the vote line, which left a bill of €2,639.