FINE GAEL LOCAL election candidate Noel Rock has admitted using around €60 worth Oireachtas envelopes that were donated to him to send out campaign literature.
Rock, who has made a high-profile pledge to take no expenses if elected to Dublin City Council this Friday, admitted that around 100 Seanad Éireann envelopes were used to send out the literature.
“This limited amount of postage, which amounted to €60, was contributed to my campaign in good faith,” Rock, who is running in the Ballymun ward, said in a statement to TheJournal.ie
He said that the use of the envelopes will be included in his statement of expenditure to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) which just last week warned TDs and Senators not to use pre-paid Oireachtas envelopes for election purposes.
Rock has pledged that he will not take what he claims is “€35,500 in tax-free expenses” if elected to Dublin City Council.
But he has come under fire from those in his own party with his constituency rival Professor Bill Tormey previously describing him as a “tosser” engaging in “a form of egregious abuse to ingratiate himself with the voters”.
Rock wrote about his pledge in a column for this website last weekend and said today that given the unhappiness with his actions he would donate €60 to a charity of their choice.
His statement added: “This donation was given in good faith, and used in good faith, to communicate with a very limited number of people – smaller than 0.1% of my local electorate.
“However, having been contacted by some people who feel unhappy at this, I have decided to donate the equivalent financial value to a charity of their choice of €60, which equates to 100 stamps”.
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