AN ethics investigation report into Kerry councillor Danny Healy-Rae will be inspected by the county manager Tom Curran this week.

The politician raised question marks when he failed to declare his interest during a discussion on the provision of machinery to Kerry County Council. Healy-Rae's company provides hundreds of thousands of euro worth of plant hire equipment to Kerry County Council each year and, according to ethics guidelines, he should have declared this interest during a recent council meeting.

A motion was raised by councillor Brendan Cronin asking that the leasing of such equipment be limited to €120,000 per contractor each year. This motion was dismissed on the basis that county councillors have no auth­ority to overrule national and EU procurement laws which rule that no cap be placed on contracts.

A procedural report carried out by the council's ethics officer is to be forwarded to the county manager next week although no further action is likely to be taken.

Healy-Rae said he did not declare his interest because he knew the council had no remit in relation to procurement guidelines.

"I saw this motion and I said this has nothing to do with Kerry County Council because it is national and EU procurement laws that dictate the hiring of plant hire or anything else for Kerry County Council. If I felt that it was something that was going to change with something that I was doing privately then, yes, of course I would have vacated the chamber.

A council spokesman said: "If there were any possible contraventions of the guidelines they were procedural and minor in nature.

"He didn't speak at the meeting and he made no effort to speak... He didn't benefit because the council couldn't change anything on procurement guidelines; there was nothing he did wrong."