"Ring Of Kerry" Controversy

Calls From Dail Phone Helped TD Win Reality TV Contest

Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae has been at the center of a political storm for over a week, after it emerged that his victory in a TV reality contest four years ago was helped by thousands of calls from Dail phone lines paid for by taxpayers.

The colorful Kerry TD is a son of the now-retired and equally colorful former TD Jackie Healy-Rae, who is famous for gaining pork barrel funding for local projects in return for supporting the governments of Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.

Michael, nicknamed 'Dolly' by some political wags who believe he is a clone of his father, was a local councilor in Kerry in 2007, when he took part on an RTE television reality series called "Celebrities Go Wild".

It was part of the People in Need telethon that year, in which a group of celebrities raised money for charities by living rough in Connemara and being voted off the show one-by-one by the public.

Michael Healy-Rae won the popular show by some distance, but it emerged last week that 3,636 calls to a premium rate contest line were made from within the walls of Leinster House.

The calls were likely made by a computerized auto-dialling system, because analysis of them showed they all lasted less than five seconds and more than 1,000 of them lasted just one second.

They were made over the course of three days.

To make them manually, it would have taken one person more than nine hours.

The total cost of the calls to taxpayers was €2,639.

Michael Healy-Rae denied any involvement in making the calls, pointing out that he was living without any modern technology under the eyes of cameras when the calls were made.

However, the finger of suspicion pointed at his father.

Normally, phone use from Leinster House is not monitored, but in exceptional cases the service provider will notify officials if there is an unusual 'spike' in activity in case it involves a hacker or an attack.

So in 2007, Eircom brought it to the attention of Oireachtas officials that 3,636 calls were made in the space of a few days to the same premium rate number, at a cost of 60c plus VAT per call.

The number was the hotline to vote for Michael Healy-Rae in the contest.

Oireachtas members are entitled to the free use of their office telephone in their line of duties, and there is no system to link individual calls to individual lines.

Although Michael Healy Rae's father was a TD at the time, Michael denies he had anything to do with it.

"What I would have been doing for that week would have been the least of his concerns," he said during radio interview after the controversy broke last week.

However, his father had emailed every TD and Senator a few days before the final vote in the TV show, canvassing support for his son.

Later in the week he targeted all Fine Gael and Fianna Fail staff members.

"I am asking for your support for my son Michael Healy-Rae who is at present taking part in the 2007 RTE People in Need Telethon. This is the last night and Michael has gone through all the challenges so far, now the end is in sight. Michael is one of the three remaining contestants and he has a real chance to win this. I am asking each and everyone to vote for Michael today," his e-mail read. "Please text 'Wild Michael'..."

In March 2008, the clerk of the Dail wrote a letter to Jackie Healy Rae, asking him about the unusual spike in calls, but received no reply.

When the scandal hit the newspapers this week, Michael Healy-Rae initially tried to ride it out. But after the Ceann Comhairle of the Dail Sean Barrett described it as "an outrageous abuse of facilities" and two inquiries were launched into the incident, he tried to defuse it by repaying the money.

He said the €2,700 check was not an admission of guilt, and insisted that neither he nor his father had any hand, act or part in the calls.

"I'm not paying the money back," he insisted, "I didn't take it in the first place."

But he said the controversy was proving a distraction.

"Every person who made those phone calls, I'm paying for every one of their phone calls now," said Mr Healy-Rae.

"I'm the only person in Ireland that's paying for other people's phone bills. I'm a good, honest, hard-working politician.

"I want to be allowed to continue with that job and I cannot if this is hanging out there, and if people are going to be saying, well will the money be paid or won't the money be paid."

However, the controversy surrounding Mr Healy-Rae did not end there.

At the weekend, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton removed him from the governing board of the State body, the Citizens Information Bureau.

A spokesperson for the Minister said she had asked Mr Healy-Rae to resign several times from the position because of a conflict of interest and it was "coincidental" that his removal came at the same time as the controversy which has been dubbed "Ring of Kerry".