THE OFFICE of the Government Chief Whip said yesterday it had incorrectly stated that Senator Ivor Callely can be removed from two Oireachtas committees by a vote of the Seanad.
In a clarifying statement, the office said Mr Callely can only be removed from an Oireachtas committee on two grounds. The first is because of a poor attendance record, the second is at the request of the individual.
Neither the Government Chief Whip John Curran nor the Seanad can compel Mr Callely to stand down.
If Mr Callely, now an Independent, wishes to remain on the committees, he is entitled to do so as long as his attendance record is satisfactory.
The Senator has been expelled from Fianna Fáil and is also facing a 20-day suspension from the Seanad as a result of a finding that he should not have claimed his west Cork holiday home as his normal residence when claiming travel expenses.
Mr Curran has already moved to remove Mr Callely from positions on two bodies; the Irish delegation to the parliamentary assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the British-Irish parliamentary office.
But his office accepted yesterday that it had been incorrect when it supplied information to The Irish Times that it would be possible to move a motion in the Seanad to remove Mr Callely from two standing Oireachtas committees: the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Employment.
“The process of removing a Senator from an Oireachtas committee, as set out by Standing Order 88 of the Seanad, can take place due to a poor attendance record or at the request of the individual.
“It cannot take place by a vote of the Seanad.
“The information we supplied was incorrect, and we are happy to clarify the matter,” said the Chief Whip’s office in a statement.
Separately, a spokesman for the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe parliamentary assembly said yesterday that it had received no information from the Irish authorities that Senator Callely was no longer entitled to be a delegate.
In July, Mr Callely was elected unanimously as vice chair of an influential committee of the organisation for the forthcoming year.
That happened three weeks after Mr Curran had written to the Oireachtas saying that Mr Callely was being “discharged” from the Irish delegation.
