Ivor Callely expenses scandal  The Ivor Callely expenses scandal centred on the Fianna Fáil senator Ivor Callely. The scandal resulted in Callely's resignation from the Fianna Fáil party, as well as a jail sentence. On 30 May 2010, it was revealed under a Freedom of Information Act request, that Callely had claimed expenses totalling €81,015 since 2007 for overnight and travel expenses to a house in County Cork. Callely said that following the loss of his Dáil seat in 2007, he took up residence in Cork. After his nomination to the Seanad, Callely informed Oireachtas officials in December 2007 that his "current principal residence" was Kilcrohane, Bantry in County Cork, which is 370 km from Leinster House. The "Irish Independent" reported that he was still politically active in Dublin, ran a constituency office on the northside of Dublin and attended Fianna Fáil meetings locally. On 1 June 2010, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen requested a written explanation from Callely about his expense claims. Speaking in the Seanad on 2 June 2010, Callely insisted that he had fully complied with regulations. He said that he had always made it clear that he had a residence in west Cork, as well as a home in Clontarf and a constituency office in Dublin North–Central. He resigned the Fianna Fáil party whip on 5 June 2010. He claimed a €140 "overnight" allowance on hundreds of occasions when attending the Seanad – even though he stayed in his Dublin home on the nights in question. In July 2010, the Oireachtas Select Committee on Members' Interests investigated Callely's travel expenses. It found that he had breached a section of the 2001 Standards in Public Office Act, by misrepresenting his normal place of residence for the purpose of claiming allowances. As a result, he was suspended from the Seanad for 20 days without pay. On 1 August 2010, the "Irish Daily Mail" revealed that in November 2007, Callely claimed €2,907 for mobile phone handsets and car kits purchased from a company called Business Communications Limited between 2002 and 2005. This company had ceased trading in 1994, eight years before Callely's earliest claim. The departments of which he was a minister between 2002 and 2005 paid €33,000 in phone bills for his constituency office, mobile and home phones, including the purchase of new phones.