Minister’s shamed brother may not get severance deal
AN POST is to review whether the convicted brother of tough-talking Minister Jim Daly can avail of a five-figure severance payment to close his post office.
The mental health minister’s elder brother John is among the 161 postmasters and mistresses around the country who have applied for a voluntary redundancy type scheme.
And if his application is accepted, the shopkeeper – who was recently
‘Convicted of illegally selling cigarettes’
convicted of illegally selling cigarettes and tobacco in his hometown of Drinagh in west Cork – would be entitled to as much as €50,000 in a one-off lump sum.
But this weekend An Post said it was a serious issue for a postmaster to be convicted of a criminal offence and the national post service insisted it could not award a contract to run a post office to anyone with a criminal conviction. A spokeswoman refused to comment on the Daly case, saying: ‘We will not comment on any individual cases.’ She added, however: ‘A serious matter such as a postmaster being in receipt of a criminal conviction would be dealt with through due process by An Post. A criminal conviction precludes an individual from holding a post office contract.’ Last October, the Irish Mail on Sunday revealed that the minister’s brother had pleaded guilty at Clonakilty District Court to selling contraband cigarettes for which he had not paid tax.
Hearing the case, Judge Mary Dorgan asked the Revenue Commissioners to reconsider whether it wanted to convict a shopkeeper of ‘impeccable character’. The case was adjourned until December, and again in January, when Mr Daly’s solicitor queried why the Revenue Commissioners was seeking a ‘pound of flesh’. The case came before Judge Dorgan again in June and she adjourned it until last month when the minister’s brother was convicted and fined €2,500.
On Thursday, a list of postmasters and postmistresses who have applied for An Post’s redundancy type scheme was leaked but the national postal service has refused to comment on the list.
This weekend, John Daly declined to return a call from the MoS. Minister Daly grew up in the rural west Cork village of Drinagh where his elder brother John – whose second name is Christopher – is known locally as JC.
During John Daly’s trial, the court heard that a cache of illegal tobacco products was found when Revenue officials got a tip-off and raided his shop in November 2016. The shop is in the same premises as Drinagh post office. Prosecuting solicitor Malachy Boohig said the State lost just over €400 in unpaid tax and he told the judge that the penalty for such an offence was a €5,000 fine.
Mr Daly’s solicitor said his client had written to the customs officer involved in the raid and had accepted that he had done wrong.