Lee joins furore over O'Donoghue expenses
Friday August 28 2009
Fine Gael TD George Lee has waded into the controversy over Ceann Comhairle John O'Donoghue's spending on foreign travel.
He described the culture of ministerial expenses at the time when Mr O'Donoghue was Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism as "outrageous".
"Particularly in the climate in which we're in, in which you're asking people to take all sorts of medicine, what we've seen and what we've read highlights there is a very significant issue with how expenses are incurred for ministerial activity," he said.
Mr Lee had earlier made his position clear when he responded to an email from a member of the politics.ie website, who referred to Mr O'Donoghue's travel expenses.
"I agree that these expenses are outrageous. I will be raising this issue with the Minister for Finance by way of parliamentary question," he replied.
Mr Lee told the Irish Independent that he was not referring to Mr O'Donoghue's expenses specifically, but to ministerial expenses generally.
"I just think that, in this day and age, it's time for us to tighten up and to be sure about what the rules are. I want to know whether there are reforms planned in the area," he said.
Mr Lee is the latest Fine Gael figure to comment publicly on the issue, after Fine Gael Senator Paschal Donohoe called for Mr O'Donoghue to resign for being a "waster" of taxpayers' money.
Fine Gael was previously silent on revelations of Mr O'Donoghue's €126,000 travel bill, in one two-year period during his time as Arts, Sports and Tourism Minister.
This included €1,400 a day spent on a chauffeur at the Cheltenham racing festival, in 2007.
Culture
Mr Lee said he was more interested in finding out if there had been a culture of over-spending by ministers during the reign of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern rather than pursuing an explanatory statement from Mr O'Donoghue.
"Was that reflective of the regime that was there? Were all ministers spending money like that?" he asked.
Mr O'Donoghue has repeatedly declined to comment on the revelations about his foreign travel spending as Arts, Sports and Tourism Minister -- a post which he held from 2002 to 2007.
Mr Lee's intervention comes after the Irish Independent revealed that Mr O'Donoghue had helped a publican to lobby against the lowering of the drink-driving limit by forwarding his letter to Transport Minister Noel Dempsey.
Mr O'Donoghue's supporters have repeatedly said he cannot comment on his expenses due to his "non-political" role as Ceann Comhairle. Mr O'Donoghue could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
- Michael Brennan Political Correspondent
