Anti-corruption campaigner John Wolfe.

You can mock him, or try to block him.

But you cannot stop him.

It’s been three years since [John] Wolfe began his quest to look into the travel expenses of former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

First, through a Freedom of Information request, Wolfe learnt that Ahern was claiming €1,000 in travel expenses each month for commuting to the Dáil after stepping down as Taoiseach. But as the former Taoiseach, he also benefited from the use of a state car whenever he wanted.

In effect, Wolfe believes claiming these expenses while also using a state car funded by the taxpayer amounted to fraud. He passed this information to the Garda Bureau of Fraud Investigation, the Garda Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) back in 2013.

In court, he said that under Section 19 of the Criminal Justice Act 2011, he had an obligation to do so. But a year later, DPP Claire Loftus said she would not be prosecuting Ahern as there was no evidence he had done anything wrong.

At the time, Ahern told the Sunday Independent that his expense claims were all legal and above board.

You might have expected Wolfe to stop then.

Instead, he tried to find out if these bodies had investigated his complaint, but struggled to get any information. Through correspondence with the fraud squad, he discovered the incident hadn’t even been recorded on the Gardaí’s Pulse system.

Frustrated, he felt his complaint wasn’t being taken seriously, so he applied for a judicial review, citing the fraud squad, the DPP and the Garda Commissioner.

When the High Court heard the case last December, it decided against granting this, because the judge said it was too late to make the application.

On Monday, he appealed this decision….[more at link below]

John Wolfe Is On A Mission To Tackle TDs’ Expenses (Louisa McGrath, Dublin Inquirer)

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Dublin Inquirer on Broadsheet.ie

Pic: Louisa McGrath for Dublin Inquirer