O'Keeffe to get chance to reply to charges

Former Junior Minister Ned O’Keeffe will have an opportunity today to reply publicly to charges that he breached the Dáil’s ethics code.

Last week, the Dáil committee on members’ interests recommended that Mr O’Keeffe be suspended from the House for 10 days for failing to declare his interest in a family pig farm in Co Cork.

The matter arose when Mr O’Keeffe voted against a motion calling for a ban on the feeding of meat and bonemeal to pigs.

The TD did not inform the House that his family’s farm had a licence to use meat and bonemeal.