Mr Callely, who was a TD for the Dublin North-Central constituency for 18 years, has appeared in Revenue’s list of tax defaulters after an audit established that he had under-declared Vat. The list describes his occupation as “motor vehicle dealer”, and gives his address as Howth Road, Killester.
It says he owed €111,478 in unpaid tax, but will also have to pay €28,115 in interest plus a penalty of €33,344, bringing his total bill to almost €173,000.
The 66-year-old served as a junior minister in the Department of Health and in the Department of Transport between 2002 and 2005. He stepped down after RTÉ reported that a building contractor involved in public works had painted his house free of charge in the 1990s.
Mr Callely lost his Dáil seat in 2007, and failed in an attempt to get a Seanad seat. However, he was nominated to the upper house by Bertie Ahern, who was then taoiseach.
In 2010, it emerged that he had been claiming expenses for travelling to and from Leinster House from Cork. Mr Callely claimed he had moved to Bantry, which was 370km from Kildare Street.
He was suspended from the Seanad, and from the Fianna Fáil party, after an inquiry concluded he had misrepresented his home address and that he was in fact operating from north Dublin.
In 2014, Mr Callely pleaded guilty to making false claims of €4,207.45 in mobile phone expenses when he was a member of the Oireachtas, and he was sentenced to five months in prison.
Four years later, he was given an eight-month suspended sentence for ransacking the office of a GP who was sub-letting a room at the house in Killester where the former TD was the primary tenant.
A hidden camera recorded him defacing the walls, scattering rubbish around the room and breaking a saddle board.
He pleaded guilty to one harassment charge and seven counts of criminal damage on seven dates in May and June 2017. Mr Callely’s lawyer said the former TD was under “extreme pressure” at the time and this had caused him to “flip”.
In 2020, a finance company obtained summary judgment for €1.5m at the High Court against Mr Callely over loans for property investments. The former TD had opposed the application by Everyday Finance DAC, but his estranged wife, Jennifer Foley, reached a settlement with the company which included a judgment against her.
Mr Callely had represented himself in the case, and told the court he had suffered serious injuries in a bicycle accident in August 2019, which had affected his ability to deal with the case and to earn an income.
