Bogus letter - Fianna Fáil should expel councillor

It is a preposterous notion that an election candidate can both misappropriate the Taoiseach’s signature and misuse Oireachtas material to gain electoral advantage, and that his election is afterwards allowed stand.

By employing such duplicitous tactics, Fianna Fáil councillor and former Minister of State Lorcan Allen perpetrated a calculated deception on the electorate in the Gorey area.

Yesterday, he admitted producing and distributing 2,500 copies of a bogus letter, purporting to be from and signed by Bertie Ahern, seeking support for Mr Allen in the local election, to the detriment of his party colleague, Pat Rath.