Beware the lynch mob during times like these. Now that the public's dander is up, anger is widespread, and lots of people are running for cover, the time is ripe for a lynch mob to do its work.

Ivor Callely is an unlikely victim, but his travails do serve as a warning in these turbulent times. Is the mob to arbitrarily decide who is entitled to a fair hearing?

Last week, Callely further outraged the public by applying to the High Court to set aside a ruling by a senate committee that he fiddled his expenses to the tune of €80,000. The committee decided that he misrepresented his normal place of residence, by claiming mileage from a holiday home in west Cork, rather than his long-term base in Clontarf. The committee duly suspended him for 20 sitting days, for which he won't be paid.

There is no sympathy for Callely within Leinster House, which is unusual, and says all you need to know about how he is regarded by his peers. In the eyes of the public, he is the epitome of the greed perceived to infect the body politic. The man himself appeared less than assured when he was questioned before the committee. Instead of offering hard evidence in his own favour, he lapsed into philosophical musings about the nature of life.

The hearings last July were ideal for a lynching. Outside Leinster House, Callely was loathed. Anything but a savage indictment of his actions would have been met with cynicism and further anger. Inside the committee room, his colleagues grilled him relentlessly.

One view might be that his colleagues were only too happy to have somebody on the hook for fiddling expenses. After all, the whole Oireachtas expenses system was designed to be milked. Far better that the public concentrate on somebody who may have broken the rules, rather than thinking about the feather bedding within the rules.

And so, the committee duly stuck it to Callely. Except, did they do their job properly, or were they in such a rush to get him that they denied him due process?

Callely maintained that he acted within the definition of normal place of residence as set down by the Oireachtas commission. The committee in its ruling disagreed. Yet a paragraph on page 9 of the committee's report reads: "The Committee believes that the expenses regulations would benefit from a clearer and more robust definition of "normal place of residence". In the interest of maintaining public confidence in the Houses, the Committee would recommend that this matter is addressed."

If the definition is unclear, how could Callely be guilty of failing to comply with it? A long-standing principle of law is that if legislation is ambiguous, it should be interpreted in favour of the party against whom it is being invoked. Another issue introduced in the hearings involved a suggestion that Callely may have used the west Cork residence as a ruse to avoid paying capital gains tax. This had absolutely nothing to do with the matter under consideration. There is little doubt but that Callely has a strong case to bring to court.

Apart from questions over due process, the case that Callely is taking says plenty about the country right now. First up, the court will have to decide whether it has jurisdiction, or whether that would involve trampling on the separation-of-powers principle, which is vital to a functioning democracy.

Previously, separation of powers has come under the microscope in vital areas such as provision of education facilities, mandatory sentencing and the jurisdiction of an Oireachtas committee to make adverse findings in the Abbeylara case, which involved the shooting dead of John Carthy.

Now this weighty democratic principle must concern itself with an issue revolving around whether a self-serving, has-been politician fiddled his expenses.

Court time is at a premium to deal with the fall-out from the economic collapse. If the High Court does feel it has jurisdiction to hear the case, more time and expense must be spent on this stuff. Even if Callely loses, there is little prospect of him coughing up for the senate committee's fees, which is more lawyer gravy to be dished out by the state. And all because a bunch of politicians – which had access to oodles of legal advice – left at least room for doubt on what was an unprecedented ruling.

As for Ivor the Engine, his woes are only just beginning. The allegations that he used forged invoices to claim telephone expenses is the next item on his agenda. That is something that the gardaí should be investigating.

He's a greedy little man, no question about that. He has nothing of substance to contribute to public life. Irrespective of any findings in the High Court, his dignity is gone and will not be retrieved.

Another public representative more cognisant of his duty might well have taken his medicine in the public interest and attempted to rebuild his life in another sphere. But Callely has long ceased to fit the bill of a conscientious and service-driven politician.

Nevertheless, he retains the rights of a citizen and he is entitled to protection from mob rule. If he were to be denied proper due process, who would be next?

mclifford@tribune.ie