The Seanad Members Interests Committee made the following findings in their report on the matter of Senator Callely’s expenses claims.
That he had misrepresented his place of residence for the purpose of claiming expenses. It described this as an act of a “serious and grave nature” which Mr. Callely had done “intentionally” and did not act in good faith having regard to all of the circumstances.
Here’s the layman’s translation.
Senator Callely deliberately set out to defraud the taxpayer.
The Committee suspended Callely for 20 days. They could have suspended him for 30 days but obviously concluded that robbing large wads of taxpayer’s money is not really a serious matter.
Measured against the rampant corruption within our political system this is a reasonable conclusion.