Donegal Councillor John O’Donnell is to appear before the Standards in Public Office Commission next week for a public hearing on alleged contraventions of the Ethical Framework for Local Government Service.
Cllr O’Donnell is one of three Irish Councillors who appeared in an RTE Investigates exposé to be called before SIPO.
SIPO announced today that the Letterkenny MD Cllr O’Donnell will face an Investigation Hearing on Tuesday 11st September in Dublin.
Cllr John O’Donnell faces allegations of ethical breaches after he was filmed in a meeting with an undercover reporter in the RTÉ Investigates Standards in Public Office programme in December 2015.
The documentary showed Cllr O’Donnell telling a reporter posing as a wind farm investor that he wanted to be paid indirectly for lobbying on behalf of the development.
Cllr O’Donnell claimed that he had been speaking in his capacity as a businessman and not as a local councillor when the recordings were made.
Councillor Hugh McElvaney of Monaghan County Council and Councillor Joe Queenan of Sligo County Council are also facing hearings next week relating to the undercover reports by RTÉ.
The hearings will investigate if the politicians breached the ethical framework under the Local Government Act 2001.