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LAST UPDATE | 21 Oct 2019
FIANNA FÁIL LEADER Micheál Martin has spoken with the party’s Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers and has accepted her explanation about “inadvertently” voting for a colleague while he was absent from the Dáil chamber.
It first emerged over the weekend that Niall Collins voted for fellow Fianna Fáil TD Timmy Dooley six times in one session while Dooley was outside the chamber on a phone call.
Now Chambers has admitted she mistakenly voted for deputy leader Dara Calleary in the same set of votes.
She said she “inadvertently” sat in Calleary’s seat, which is beside her own in the chamber. She said she “pressed the button in error” while he was at a radio interview, as first reported by The Irish Times.
Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl ordered a report into the Dooley and Collins incident on Saturday. Micheál Martin has asked the Dooley and Collins to temporarily step down from their positions on the party’s frontbench after the incident was reported.
It is understood the party leader has today also spoken to Chambers and has accepted her explanation of events. She will not face any sanction.
Minister for Justice (and Fine Gael TD) Charlie Flanagan has said he is “very concerned” that two Fianna Fáil TDs voted for colleagues while they were absent from the Dáil chamber.
Minister Flanagan today admitted he has pushed a voting button for a colleague in the past, but never when that TD was outside the Dáil chamber.
He said there may be occasions where a TD is on their way to their seat and their neighbour may press the button for them “in anticipation and in expectation of that person taking their seat”.
“The issue here is one of the sanctity of the chamber. After a period of eight minutes the doors of the chamber are sealed. Anybody who’s in the chamber is invited to vote, anybody who’s outside the chamber has no entitlement at all,” he said.
And that’s the issue here, it isn’t an issue about any other misdemeanour except arranging proxy vote and that’s strictly prohibited under the standing orders of the Dáil, and in fact under our Constitution.
When asked whether his Fine Gael colleagues should all now clarify whether they have ever voted for a colleague, Flanagan said “that’s an issue for themselves”.
“The issue is the illegal nature, the unlawful act of proxy voting which is a really serious misdemeanour within out parliamentary system,” he said.
And that is what the Ceann Comhailre is going to examine where it is alleged that somebody arranged a vote inside the chamber and had absented themselves from that chamber, while the doors of the chamber were firmly locked and sealed, that to me is prima facie a very suspect behaviour and totally unacceptable.
‘Honest, genuine mistake’
Chambers had appeared on RTÉ’s This Week programme earlier yesterday and said she had never voted for another colleague.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland today, Chambers said she took this question to mean intentionally voting for another TD.
“The answer for that is no,” she said.” “It was an honest, genuine mistake.”
She said the seats in the chamber are identical and the row was fairly empty at the time of the vote, so she did not notice her error until her own seat did not light up on the voting screen.
When she noticed this, she claimed to have moved to her own seat and then registered her own vote after voting in Dara Calleary’s seat.
“I mistakenly sat in the wrong seat… I should have told the teller there was an error,” said Chambers.
The TD said this particular vote was lost in such high numbers that she did not see a point in informing a teller of her error.
“Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever done it before… I’m asking people to have a bit of faith and listen to me this morning.”
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock has asked for an “appropriate investigation” into the incident involving the six votes in Dooley’s absence.
Dara Calleary said yesterday he “did not, and would not” ask another TD to vote for him in the Dáil. He had previously described Dooley’s recorded votes while absent from the chamber as “unusual”.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he was not aware of any government TDs voting for each other while absent. Speaking to RTÉ News, he said the integrity of the voting system in the Dáil was of “utmost importance”.
- With reporting by Michelle Hennessy.
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I hope she never sees the light of day again
The sickening thing is , she will .
Will she even do time I wonder
I doubt it. It’ll be a Suspended sentence
This is Ireland.
She’ll most likely, get a fully furnished new house to add to her previous portfolio of 3.
A new car.
A raise in her benefits.
New clothes.
And hundreds of thousands of Euro in medical and counselling expenses.
This woman does not deserve to call herself a mother. She’s nothing but a disgusting human. Fair play to those kids for going through with this case and sorry to hear this was allowed to carry on for so long.
How did she get bail? Vile human being, I hope she gets a proper sentence and the kids get the love and help they need.
How could this continue over time without something being done? Neighbours aware, school aware of issues. What did social services do here? This is madness.
Yes, Greg, I wonder what Social Services did here, and what the ISPCC did here, too.
It seems to just have been allowed to continue for 5 years.
It’s astounding, with Child Abuse supposedly being taken so seriously.
I can’t understand what makes someone do that to kids, any kids. I just hope that they get the love and attention that they deserve now as young adults.
Her defense team? Who paid for that I wonder?
Where is/are the father(s)?
How is this tolerated in the 21st century?
She may not even know who the fathers are.
Disgusting! Poor children, God love them
Why didn’t the neighbours report her?
What a twisted bitch
I heard some of the mothers defence evidence reported on the radio today in relation to the two boys having their hair pulled out by her…….
“She said the boys were exaggerating, yes, she said, she had to hold them forcibly in a headlock and it took some power to force the neck of the Fairy washing liquid bottle past their clenched teeth as they struggled and won’t allow her to pour the washing up liquid in their mouths because they said a rude word but she didn’t pull out clumps of hair”
That was her defence on that charge alone.
She didn’t see anything wrong with it, that was her defence………What an evil woman.
She is evil, I hope that she never gets out.
It wasn’t just her that failed the children, why were they left in her care for so long, why did it take so long to bring her to court?
Why was there a delay of 5 years from when social services got involved until the kids were taken from this vile evil woman
The poor kids. I hope they can go on to lead normal happy lives.
This evil piece of sc#m should be fed on bread and water for the rest of her miserable life
I hope she gets the help she needs, and for the children’s sake that she is able to establish a normal relationship with them in time.
Joe, I would say that the relationship is way beyond repair.
‘The help she needs’?!! Are you for real Joe?
Why is every perpetrator of horrific crimes given the tag of ‘victim’? Some people are just evil, nasty, deplorable animals and should be disposed of.
After witnessing first hand similar events above I can say from my own experience that forgiveness comes in time. May be a few years, may take decades, the child will still want to be loved / accepted by the parent. They may have a chance at a relationship of some sort depending on the child or no relationship at all depending on the child. The child will also feel a degree of guilt and responsibility even though the child is 100% innocent the guilt is still there.
The child’s want/need to be loved and wanted is huge if they can get that of the fosters career they may never look for their mothers love, but if they are shipped from home to home and only used by the foster career for money (some foster careers not all) then I feel the child future will be hard.
Exactly Colin some people are beyond help, evil will always be evil unfortunately the human race churns out the odd one every now and then, and unfortunately that evil can spawn innocent children.
Well said
Poor kids
have your say