EXCLUSIVE: McElvaney defiant despite RTÉ footage

Seamus Enright

“I will survive. Have no doubt about that,” embattled Independent Monaghan County Councillor Hugh McElvaney declared in response to the revelations shown in the RTÉ Investigates, aired last Monday night.
Four-time mayor of Co Monaghan, and a winner of eight successive council elections described the exposé into alleged corruption at all levels of the Irish political system as: “The biggest piss-pull in the history of the State, that’s all I’ve got to say about it. RTÉ - caught them out!
“I’ll admit it didn’t show me in a great light for people outside of this Cavan-Monaghan area who don’t know me. It was very bad publicity for me. But it’s the type of client I am that I take these people head-on, and I accept the circumstances,” the ex-Fine Gael councillor stated defiantly.
Cllr McElvaney was recorded suggesting that £10,000 would be “a start” for him acting as a “conduit” in ensuring a smooth planning process for a fictitious wind farm company seeking to invest in the county.
Cllr McElvaney was also captured saying: “You need to sweeten the man up. You know what I mean?”, and explaining that if the deal was successful, he wanted “loads of money”.
In a final phonecall between him and the TV investigations unit he said: “The more that’s in the bag, the keener I will be... Don’t tell anybody else our terms and conditions.”
Asked whether he is now considering legal action against RTÉ over the footage, Cllr McElvaney said he plans to discuss the matter with his family.
“At the moment no, it’s not on my mind. I’ve achieved what I set out to do, and that is to show RTÉ up for what they are,” he said.
Cllr McElvaney also denied that he was considering the possibility of stepping away from politics altogether as a result of the revelations.
“Not at all. You must be joking. No, no, no, I represent the electorate and the electorate elect me, eight times in succession. It’s not the first time RTÉ have done their dirty tricks on me. I will survive. Have no doubt about that,” he said.
In an email the Celt asked Independent TD Sean Conlan, for whom Cllr McElvaney acted as director of elections in 2011, whether they would team up again for the forthcoming election. The Ballybay man had not responded at the time of going to print.

‘Error’
The RTÉ Investigations Unit also uncovered incomplete declarations among local elected officials.
In Cavan, Fine Gael’s Val Smith did not list an interest in a family home as well as another house, farm and buildings.
In a statement to RTÉ, he admitted that they should have been declared and the fact it hadn’t was an “error” on his behalf.
“I wouldn’t like to be tarred with the same brush as some of the others who featured in that programme. That’s not right,” Cllr Smith told the Celt on Tuesday.
“I filled a form, I filled it wrong, it was my mistake. I hold my hands up to it and I’ve corrected it. But I didn’t stand to gain anything out of not declaring them, and still don’t.
It was a mistake, an honest one. Anyone who knows me sees I work hard for people on the ground. As a councillor you do so much, and then you appear on a programme like that as some sort of second Hugh McElvaney!,” he said.

Controversy
Fianna Fáil’s Fergal Curtin too has been caught up in the controversy. Like Cllr Smith, both of whom live in the same locality, his omission, that he holds a directorship in three separate companies, and has properties including a family farm, and rental properties in Dublin and Virginia was “an honest one”.
Cllr Curtin told the RTÉ unit: “I had honestly, if mistakenly, believed the above were not relevant for the purpose of my annual declaration.”
“I think what’s very relevant is that 40% of councillors failed to fill in these declarations properly. It’s hard to understand why two of the first people you see then in the programme are myself and Cllr Smith. It is unfair. Those who know me know I’m honest, and above board. At no time did any of the properties I have an interest in conflict with the interests of that of Cavan County Council. I want to make that clear,” Cllr Curtin said.
Fianna Fáil have since stated that in respect of any allegations made against current members, it will begin an internal inquiry “under the auspices of the Ard Chomhairle to establish the full facts in each instance and will take action as appropriate”.
Cavan County Council have confirmed that Cllr Smith and Curtin have both updated their Declarable Interests to the Ethics Registrar and this information is now included on the Public Register. “Cavan County Council has no further comment at this time.”