A Fianna Fail senator resigned from the party yesterday after a political watchdog found he breached ethics legislation by claiming expenses from two public bodies for events held in different parts of the country on the same day.
The Standards in Public Office Commission ruled that Brian Ó Domhnaill had intentionally and improperly claimed travel expenses as a member of Donegal county council and Udaras na Gaeltachta in 2006.
It found that Mr Ó Domhnaill, who was Fianna Fail’s Seanad spokesman on rural and regional affairs, contravened the Local Government Act in relation to nine allegations concerning three sets of dates which were inconsistent with his role as a public representative.
Under regulations issued by the environment minister, councillors are not entitled to claim travel expenses for a journey from their local authority when they are also claiming expenses for the same journey from another state body.
Fianna Fail confirmed that he had resigned the party whip last night. It is understood that he intends to remain in office as an independent senator.
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Mr Ó Domhnaill claimed expenses from Donegal county council for attending conferences in Dundalk, Co Louth; Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan and Carlingford, Co Louth on dates in 2006 for which he also claimed expenses from Udaras na Gaeltachta for attending meetings of the Donegal Sports Partnership in Letterkenny.
He received a total of €1,792 in relation to the events by the local authority and €254 by Udaras.
Sipo said it was open to both bodies to try and recoup the money as Mr Ó Domhnaill has not repaid any of the incorrectly claimed expenses to date.
“The Standards Commission found that each contravention was committed intentionally and was, in all the circumstances, a serious matter,” a Sipo spokeswoman stated.
The commission said that the seriousness of the matter was not determined by the sum of money involved. Sipo also decided that it was not in a position to find that the senator had acted in good faith and it rejected his assertion that his mistakes on expense claim forms were genuine and honest.
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It said that his evidence was “unsatisfactory and lacked credibility”. It rejected claims by Mr Ó Domhnaill’s legal team that the issue did not relate to double expense claims but to two distinct claims to two different public bodies arising out of different dates.
At a public hearing of Sipo chaired by Mr Justice Daniel O’Keeffe in May, Mr Ó Domhnaill rejected allegations that he had breached ethics legislation, insisting that he had always filled out his claims as honestly as he could.
Mr Ó Domhnaill, from Falcarragh in Co Donegal, maintained that he had interrupted his attendance at the three conferences to return to Donegal to chair meetings of the Donegal Sports Partnership as well as for “urgent and ongoing constituency work”.
Although the Sipo investigation had damaged his career, he claimed he had done the right thing.
His legal team argued that Mr Ó Domhnaill was free to absent himself from portions of conferences attended by him in order to attend other events in his capacity as a public representative which he strongly believed was “a better use of his time”.
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They stated that money he had spent on petrol and maintenance in returning back to Donegal from conferences exceeded any expenses he claimed.
Counsel for Sipo said that expense claim forms filled out by Mr Ó Domhnaill were in conflict with the times he claimed in evidence.
They also pointed out that on each occasion he had claimed mileage from Donegal county council that was in excess of the mileage allowed. He claimed the distance from his home to Dundalk was 179 miles when it was actually 136 miles. For the journey to Carrickmacross, he claimed expenses for 163 miles — the true distance is 123 miles. In relation to Carlingford he claimed 176 miles for a journey that is 142 miles.
In its ruling Sipo noted that all the errors in estimating distance were in his favour.
It also rejected Mr Ó Domhnaill’s application for his legal costs at the inquiry. The Sipo investigation is understood to have cost almost €350,000.
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The inquiry faced delays after Mr Ó Domhnaill, who had been conducting all correspondence with Sipo in English, signalled in early 2013 that he wanted all future matters would be conducted in Irish.
He also mounted unsuccessful High Court and Supreme Court challenges against the inquiry claiming that Sipo lacked jurisdiction to investigate the complaints made by officials of Donegal county council. His decision to seek a judicial review in June 2013 led to the cancellation of a planned hearing of the inquiry which Sipo said had cost €2,973.
Mr Ó Domhnaill also insisted on formal proof being required for each and every aspect of allegations made against him which added considerably to the time and cost of the inquiry.
The senator could not be contacted for comment yesterday.