It was like 'waking up every day and being raped' - Martin Cullen
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Friday January 22, 2010 01:13
by M 50
Claims his colleagues did not want to be associated with him
After he allegations that he had been having an extra marital affair with Waterford PR executive Monica Leech, Martin Cullen said some of his colleagues did not want to be associated with him. The former Progressive Democrat and current Fianna Fáil TD claimed that that his children had been subject to bullying and
He said he had felt like running down Kildare Street shouting: 'I am innocent. I am innocent'. He described the experience as being like 'waking up every day and being raped'.
Monica Leech received a payment of 1.9 million euro from a newspaper in libel damages after remarks made on RTE about her relationship with Cullen were repeated in print. RTE settled with her for a payment of €250,000. The Minister lodged proceedings separately but has not yet acted on them. By contrast, the average payment from the redress board (which was to compensate people for, in some cases, literally being raped every day) was €60,000.
Monica Leech, who lives in Waterford, was first hired by Mr Cullen, who is a Fianna Fáil TD for Waterford, when he served as junior Minister in the Department of Finance with responsibility for the Office of Public Works (OPW).
She was an information co-ordinator for two major OPW projects in Martin Cullen's constituency and had previously been an active political supporter of the junior minister. Monica Leech Communications was appointed as a consultant to the OPW for six months as "information co-ordinator" on two projects - the Waterford North Quays and the Glen Buildings. But the contract lasted for 19 months "because the projects were on-going".
Within days of Mr Cullen moving to the Department of the Environment in July 2003, Monica Leech moved to his department on a salary of €1,200 a day. She was appointed by the Department on the recommendation of the Minister on a six-month contract until a full tender process could be initiated.
She worked on the Race Against Waste campaign for the department until the cabinet reshuffle in September 2004 when her services were terminated by the incoming minister. Her earnings from the consultancy work over two years, were in excess of €300,000.
It later emerged that Monica Leech had traveled abroad on several trips with Martin Cullen including on projects which did not appear to relate to the terms of reference of her appointment. A report by the retired chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, Dermot Quigley, published in the Spring of 2005, found that while the circumstances of the appointment of Monica Leech were unusual, he found no impropriety on her part or on the part of Martin Cullen.
The Standards in Public Office Commission subsequently investigated the appointment and also found no impropriety but said that it did not have sufficient legislative powers to instigate a deeper inquiry. Its request for wider powers to investigate allegations against the holders of public office was rejected by the Minister for Finance, Brian Cowen, in 2006.
A spokesman for the Minister said that he had asked that Monica Leech be one of those invited to tender for the contract, although her firm wasn't incorporated as a business until December, 2002. Ms Leech was awarded the contract in February 2003, beating the two well established Dublin firms, Drury PR and Carr Communications.
The Waterford Minister also appointed Mrs Leech to a panel which awarded a €4.7m e-voting contract to Q4, a public relations company run by former adviser to Bertie Ahern, Jackie Gallagher and former FF general secretary Pat Macken.