An Irish councillor who welcomed Prince Charles during his historic visit to County Sligo in May has resigned from Ireland’s largest opposition party, Fianna Fáil, after he was caught on film offering to help with planning issues.
Joe Queenan left the party on Tuesday, hours after an undercover RTÉ investigation into standards in Irish public life was broadcast.
In the secretly filmed footage, the councillor is recorded offering a reporter posing as a representative of a fictitious UK investment company help to obtain planning permission from the county council.
Queenan did not ask directly for a payment and has denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement Fianna Fáil said: “Some of the behaviour displayed in tonight’s programme was shocking and completely unacceptable. The instances where there appear to be clear breaches of the law need to be fully investigated by the gardaí and prosecutions brought where appropriate.”
Fianna Fáil said any allegations against other party members in relation to breaches of public standards would be subject to an internal inquiry.
Another councillor, who once belonged to the ruling Fine Gael party but has since become an independent, is captured on tape asking the undercover reporter: “What’s in it for me?”
When the reporter asked what he had in mind, Cllr Hugh McElvaney said “£10,000 would be a start”. McElvaney added that this arrangement would have to be “utterly confidential – if you let me down, there’ll be war”.
After the programme was broadcast, McElvaney, who sits on Monaghan council, went on local radio to complain that he knew he was being “set up” by the programme maker, RTÉ Investigates, which is running a series of special reports into political corruption at local and national level in the Irish Republic.
McElvaney claimed he was the victim of a “dirty tricks campaign” and that he played along as he wanted “the opportunity of showing RTÉ up, our state broadcaster, for what they are”.
John O’Donnell, an independent councillor for Donegal, has accused RTÉ of “entrapping” him during its investigation, which took several months to produce. RTÉ reported that he had asked for money for help with a wind farm development in the county.
Corruption in Irish political life, particularly in the area of planning and re-zoning land, has been a source of major controversy since the early 1990s.
The biggest political casualty in the drive to radically improve standards in Irish public life was the former foreign minister Ray Burke, who was sentenced to prison in 2005 for tax avoidance and failing to accurately report his earnings. Burke was given a six-month sentence after an investigation by the Criminal Assets Bureau.
