FIANNA Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary has said he “assumed” Lisa Chambers had gotten the Dáil record corrected after she voted on his behalf in error.

Ms Chambers said today that she told Mr Calleary last Thursday that she had voted in his seat by mistake.

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She did not tell the Ceann Comhairle or the Tellers in the Dáil when the vote happened so the vote she made in Mr Calleary’s name remains on the Dáil record.

Independent.ie asked Mr Calleary why he didn’t seek to get the record corrected when he learned of the vote on Thursday.

He said when Mr Chambers told him about the incident “I assumed she had corrected it with the Tellers which would have resulted in my vote being cancelled.”

He defended his Mayo colleague: “She just didn’t think about it. She’s very, very apologetic about it”

Mr Calleary said she contacted the Ceann Comhairle in relation to correcting the record.

Ms Chambers said on RTÉ Radio today that the vote she made in Mr Calleary’s name didn’t make a difference to the outcome but said: ” I should have still corrected the error regardless”.

She said she told Mr Calleary what happened on the day adding: “it’s not his fault. He didn’t ask me to do that. He would have assumed I corrected it like others have done.”

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin does not intend to demote his Brexit spokesperson Lisa Chambers for casting an improper vote in the Dáil, Independent.ie understands.

Ms Chambers has become embroiled in the ‘phantom votes’ controversy that has rocked the party.

In a fresh headache for leader Micheál Martin, she has admitted she recorded a vote “in error” on behalf of Fianna Fáil deputy leader Dara Calleary during last Thursday’s bizarre Dáil session.

A party spokesperson indicated Mr Martin accepts her excuse that voting on behalf of deputy leader Dara Calleary was a genuine mistake.

But two other Fianna Fáil TDs, Niall Collins and Timmy Dooley, remain suspended from their frontbench positions over similar errors.

Mr Collins has said he cast six votes on behalf of his colleague in the mistaken belief that he was in the chamber but not his seat during last Thursday’s session.

Ms Chambers apologised for failing to disclose this in a radio interview when she was asked directly whether she ever voted for another colleague in the Dáil.

Ms Chambers told RTE Morning Ireland “I believed I was in my seat and pressed the button’.

Mr Martin has ordered Timmy Dooley and Niall Collins to stand down from the front bench until the Ceann Comhairle has completed a probe into the matter. Fianna Fáil TDs privately expressed fury at the mess as Fine Gael ramped up the pressure and sought to bring two more senior figures – Barry Cowen and Willie O’Dea – into the scandal.

It comes after the Irish Independent revealed on Saturday that Mr Dooley was recorded as voting six times despite not being in the Dáil chamber.

Both he and Mr Collins initially claimed they did not know what happened when contacted on Friday.

However, the following day the pair said Mr Collins had pressed Mr Dooley’s voting button in the mistaken belief he was still in the chamber.

Mr Calleary’s assigned seat is beside fellow Mayo TD Lisa Chambers.

READ MORE:
Phantom votes: 16 unanswered questions at the heart of Dáil ballots affair

The Fianna Fáil deputy leader was not present at the start of Thursday’s voting session as he was doing a live radio interview.

Ms Chambers was asked directly on RTÉ yesterday whether she had ever voted for a colleague or had a colleague vote on her behalf. She replied: “No, I haven’t.”

However, she failed to give any mention to the vote she made in error on Thursday and last night she apologised for that.

Ms Chambers said that she inadvertently sat in Mr Calleary’s seat and “pressed the button once in error on the first vote”.

She added: “No one asked me to do this and when I realised, I immediately moved to my own seat.”

The record shows a vote recorded in Ms Chambers’s own seat as well.

“The vote was lost by a large number so I did not inform the Teller. It was a genuine mistake and not intended. I have informed the Ceann Comhairle this evening,” she said.

“I genuinely believed that this error was insignificant and when asked on RTÉ… had I ever voted for anyone else I answered no as [I] was never asked to vote for anyone else.

“For this, I apologise.”

Speaking this morning, Ms Chambers argued that she should not be asked to stand down from her brief.

“I was tired, it was a long week,” she said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

The Mayo TD argued that she didn’t admit to the mistake when asked directly if she had ever voted for a colleague because she took that question to mean had she ever “intentionally, purposely, knowingly” gone into to vote for someone else.

She compared the Dáil chamber to a theatre, saying it is easy to mix up seats.

“I honest to God believed I was in my seat and pressed the button,” she said.

However, after seating the votes light up on an overhead screen, the TD realised her vote hadn’t been cast.

She moved from Mr Calleary’s position to her own and cast a second vote. However, Ms Chambers decided not to alert Dáil authorities to the mistake because the vote was not tight.

She claims to have told Mr Calleary about the mistake on Thursday but he did not seek to correct the record either.

READ MORE:
Fionnán Sheahan: ‘Another fine mess as Fianna Fáil phantom votes debacle plays right into their opponents’ hands’

Mr Calleary said he understood that Ms Chambers inadvertently voted in his seat for the first of the votes, but not for any of the remaining ones for which he was absent. Mr Calleary added: “I did not and would not ask any other deputy to vote for me in the Dáil.”

Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl has ordered an investigation into voting irregularities after the revelations about Mr Dooley and Mr Collins.

Mr Dooley has since said Mr Collins voted for him “under the mistaken belief” that he was “at the back of the chamber on the phone” when the vote was taken. He said he has spoken to the Ceann Comhairle and asked to see if the record of the Dáil can be corrected.

Mr Collins has claimed that deputies “often” vote for colleagues when they are not in their assigned seat.

Fine Gael Health Minister Simon Harris claimed on RTÉ that their explanation was in “‘dog ate my homework’ territory”.

His party colleague Colm Brophy claimed Mr Dooley and Mr Collins’s accounts were “complete and utter rubbish”. Mr Brophy also raised questions relating to Mr O’Dea and Mr Cowen.

Dáil video from Thursday shows Mr Dooley approaching Mr Collins – who was chatting to Mr O’Dea – just before he leaves the Dáil chamber at the start of the voting session. Mr Dooley says something to Mr Collins as he points towards his seat before leaving. Mr Brophy questioned if Mr O’Dea could “shed any light on this”.

He also questioned why Mr Collins sat in Mr Cowen’s assigned seat.

READ MORE:
Timmy Dooley and Niall Collins ordered to stand down from Fianna Fail frontbench during ‘phantom’ votes probe

Last night, Mr O’Dea said the issue had nothing to do with him and said he didn’t hear what Mr Dooley said.

Mr Cowen said on RTÉ: “When I came in [to the Dáil], Niall was in my seat and I just [sat] beside him and we voted away, as we always do.”

He said the Ceann Comhairle is investigating “and whatever emanates from that will have to be accepted by all concerned”.

Party leader Mr Martin asked Mr Dooley and Mr Collins to step down as front bench spokespersons. He said he was doing this without prejudice and pending the outcome of the Ceann Comhairle’s report.

He said he doesn’t think what happened is acceptable, adding: “The integrity of the voting situation in Dáil Éireann is of the utmost importance… and must be respected at all times.”

Separately, Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has admitted that he has voted on behalf of other colleagues, but insisted it is “completely different” because they were present in the Dáil chamber.

Asked on Newstalk Radio if somebody had ever voted on his behalf or if he had ever voted for somebody else he replied: “

“I’ve always been in the chamber for voting. Often times somebody might be racing down the stairs with three seconds to go and they might say ‘press my button – here I am’ or whatever but this is an entriely different issue.”

He added: “I may have done it from time to time when somebody was standing beside me or coming in.”

Mr Flanagan said: “I accept that it’s not good practice.”

But he said it’s a “completely different issue” to the situation involving Mr Collins and Mr Dooley as that involved one of them – Mr Dooley being ansent from the Dáil Chamber.

Asked if he accepted that it would be better if nobody voted for anyone else he said: “absolutely”.

Earlier Mr Flanagan said that the ‘phanton votes’ issue is “very serious” as “voting goes to the heart of our process”.

He said there have been tight votes in the Dáil in the past, some won by just one vote adding: “this is all now subject to challenge – that any law that was passed on the baisis of a fraudulent vote will be subject to challegne that’s why this is a really really serious issue in our parliamentary process”.

Meanwhile, Communications minister Richard Bruton has said that the rules around voting will “undoubtedly” have to be tightened up.

Mr Bruton said the issues that arise from the ‘vote-gate’ controversy are serious.

He said the Ceann Comhairle is taking it seriously and he will not prejudice his investigation but added: “People have to have confidence in the integrity of the voting system and that’s really important.”

It was put to him on RTÉ Radio that Mr Flanagan has said there are scenarios where TDs vote for other TDs who are present in the Dáil Chamber and he asked if Mr Bruton has done this.

Mr Bruton said: “I think people have got into a trust that if someone in chamber and they ask you press their button that’s done.

“But what’s arisen here is that people weren’t there and their vote was recorded.”

Asked if he has ever gotten somebody to press the voting button for him he said: “Never when I’m not in the chamber.

“But if I was sitting in someone else’s chair and some one said ‘press my button I’m here’… that has become common practice.

“But what’s gone wrong here is that people not in the chamber at all voted”.

Asked if the rules will have to be tightened up to ensure TDs have to go to their own seat Mr Bruton said “undoubtedly” while adding: “the Ceann Comhairle will have to decide that”.

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