Minister defends hiring Fine Gael election candidate

European Affairs Minister Dara Murphy has said he did nothing wrong in appointing a failed party election candidate as his ministerial driver — claiming being an ex-politician should not stop someone from gaining work.

The former Cork City lord mayor made the comments after it emerged he gave former local election candidate Joe O’Callaghan the €631-a week taxpayer-paid job, one of a number of recent controversies over back room appointments involving the Fine Gael TD.

Responding to media criticism of the move yesterday, Mr Murphy said “the fact that someone has been an elected public representative shouldn’t preclude them from anything and he has given a long public service”.

The Cork North Central TD said he is “quite strongly of the view that it should not mean you are precluded from anything,” adding that “the guy before him” only left after retiring due to age.

A former Siptu trade union official, Mr O’Callaghan ran unsuccessfully for the government party in the 2004, 2009 and 2014 local elections. He was first elected to Cork City Council in 1995 as a Labour Party candidate and later became the city’s lord mayor. However, he subsequently left the party in 2002 after controversially calling for asylum seekers to be deported, and for a referendum on whether children born in Ireland should automatically receive citizenship.

Meanwhile, after Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney had vacated his MEP position to take his seat in the Dáil, his replacement in Europe had been a then city councillor, Colm Burke. Mr O’Callaghan was co-opted at the time to the local authority to replace Mr Burke.

However, Mr O’Callaghan failed to be elected on his own merit in 2009, and was again rejected by the public in last year’s local elections.

Mr O’Callaghan was appointed by European Affairs Minister Dara Murphy in early June to become one of his two publicly-paid-for chauffeurs, leading to claims positions are being given to back room officials without adequate transparency.

However, Mr Murphy yesterday defended the news, saying the €631-a week role is not of concern as it was not a “high-earner” position and no rules had been breached in the appointment.

The minister was reported earlier this year to have been charging €85 per person for a fundraising breakfast involving Justice Minister and party colleague Frances Fitzgerald to raise funds for his general election campaign, in what is expected to be a tightly-fought constituency battle.

He was also one of a number of government TDs to court controversy and claims of nepotism just after the “democratic revolution” 2011 general election when it emerged he had appointed his wife Tanya as his personal assistant as “she knows more about my work in the constituency than anybody else”.

At the time, 25 of the 166 TDs were employing relatives to carry out administrative roles, 15% of Dáil TDs, meaning the positions were not available for other jobseekers.

Earlier this year, it emerged Mr Murphy had spent up to €30,000 to fly home from Latvia on a state jet to vote in the marriage equality referendum. The move was heavily criticised as a waste of valuable resources. However, the minister said he only asked to be flown by jet from a work event in Latvia as taking a commercial flight would have seen him return after the vote had been held.