Monthly Archives: June 2011


This morning’s Irish Daily Mail front page.

The 3,636 premium calls, made from inside Leinster House, helped ensure Michael Healy-Rae (above with his father Jackie Healy Rae, a member of the Dail at the time), won the 2007 RTE Reality show ‘Celebrities Go Wild’:

The calls cost the state €2,639.

An oireachtas statement in the Irish Daily Mail:

“In 2007 a spike in calls to a 1513 number was brought to our attention by our telecoms provider and as a result all calls to that number were subsequently blocked. In total 3,636 calls to 1513 717107 were made from the Oireachtas phone system. Each incurred a charge of 60 cents, plus VAT, giving a total of 2,639. That charge was paid by the House of the Oireachtas Service in accordance with contractual obligations.”

Michael Healy Rae told RTE R1’s Morning Ireland: “I’m not responsible for or how people voted.”

So, why are we only hearing about this now?

Michael Healy-Rae, who was Mayor of Kerry at the time of the TV show, took his father’s seat in Kerry South at the last election. He is also – hilariously – on the Citizen’s Advice Board, appointed by the last government on the orders of his dad.

It pays him a stipend of €5,985 plus expenses a year, on top of his Dail salary of around €92,000.

Last week, Joan Burton threatened to “use the law” to oust him from the board.

Instead, someone discovered a four-year-old phone bill…

(Photocall Ireland)