Healy-Rae to pay €2,600 for phonecalls
Facing at least one inquiry over the calls, originally paid for by taxpayers, he claimed he had no role in the 3,636 phone votes to the show made from inside Leinster House.
However, the Kerry South TD yesterday told the chair of the Dáil he would foot the costs.
In a letter to Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett, he said: “This phone issue is over-riding all the important matters that we should all be concentrating on. I do not owe the Houses of the Oireachtas one cent and everybody knows that I did not make one call.
“I am however proposing to pay the Houses of the Oireachtas €2,639 as I believe this is the sum involved and I do so, so I can carry on in doing my job that I am totally dedicated to doing and that is being an honest hardworking member of this house at all times.”
Mr Barrett said he welcomed the decision but would still inquire into the issue when he raises it with the Committee on Procedures and Privileges next week.
Mr Healy-Rae had competed in RTÉ’s Celebrities Go Wild in late October 2007.
Thousands of phone votes to the TV reality show backing the then county councillor in the celebrity contest were made within Dáil Eireann.
Michael’s father, Jackie Healy-Rae, was a TD at the time but has refused to take questions over whether his office was behind the 60c-a-minute calls. Michael Healy-Rae said his father had nothing to do with the issue.
The Oireachtas says members’ calls are not logged for privacy reasons and that it cannot identify which phones were used to make the votes.
Oireachtas officials sent Jackie Healy-Rae a letter in March 2008 inquiring what he may have known about the calls but he never replied.
The letter said an analysis of the calls shows they were all less than five seconds long and over 1,000 lasted just one second.
The calls were generally made in groups at roughly five-second intervals in regular periods over a three-day period on October 22 to 25 that year.
Michael Healy-Rae said yesterday he had been informed the calls came from “all over the Houses of the Oireachtas”.
Fianna Fáil Senator Ned O’Sullivan yesterday said he had voted a dozen times for Mr Healy-Rae, sometimes on his Oireachtas phone.
The Standards in Public Office said it had received inquiries on the matter but does not usually investigate office holders like ministers and could not inquire into the issue unless an Oireachtas committee asked it to.
Mr Healy Rae denied he was footing the bill to slow down any inquiry.
