An Oireachtas letter to Jackie Healy-Rae

So, Michael Healy-Rae has agreed to shell out for those premium phone calls from Leinster House. Of course he couldn’t have made the calls at the time because, as he put it himself: “Everyone knows where I was that week.” Papa Healy-Rae, on the other hand, called on members of the Dail to support his son in ‘Celebrities Go Wild’ almost four years ago via emails sent from his official Oireachtas address. Healy-Rae Jnr went on to win the reality TV show and then in March, 2008 this letter was sent to Jackie Healy-Rae from the Oireachtas:

Deputy Jackie Healy Rae
Leinster House

Dear Deputy Healy Rae

I have been requested by the Secretary General of the office of Houses of the Oireachtas to write to you to bring your attention to the following matter:

The telephone costs records of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas show that a total sum of €2639.24 (including VAT) was incurred in costs in respect of over 3600 telephone calls from Leinster House to a premium rate number over a three day period on 22-25 October last year, (the number was 1513 717107 which is understood to have been the number on which votes were registered for Mr. Michael Healy Rae during the ‘Celebrities Go Wild’ television show last October (2007)). While there are no detailed records of any calls made from particular extensions assigned to either Members or their staff in Leinster House, I can confirm that none of the calls were made from handsets assigned to staff of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas (since there are such records for the phones of staff of the Office). I should also point out that that analysis of the calls received from Leinster House (from information provided by Eircom) shows that they were all of less than 5 seconds duration – over a thousand lasted only 1 second - and that they were generally made in groups at roughly 5 second intervals in regular periods during the above days last October.

The purpose of this letter is to make you aware of these circumstances and to invite your comments. The costs concerned have been discharged from Houses of the Oireachtas Commission funds since we are contractually obliged to pay Eircom for any calls made from the Leinster House number.

Yours sincerely

The letter, obtained by Politics.ie today, clearly shows the whole scenario was brought to the Kerry politician’s attention at time. Jackie Healy-Rae has claimed he never received such a letter. Convenient.