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Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney will make himself available to clarify outstanding questions around an appointment of Katherine Zappone, the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
There is mounting pressure on Mr Coveney to clear up inconsistencies in his account of events surrounding the appointment of former minister Katherine Zappone after senior Fianna Fáil TD Barry Cowen said he was sacked from ministerial office in similar circumstances.
Speaking in Newry, Mr Varadkar said from his own point of view he believes he himself has dealt with the matter and has published all relevant correspondence in the from of text messages.
“In terms of Mr Coveney, my understanding is that he spent two hours at committee, was willing to go before committee to be held to account and answer questions. He is willing to offer further clarifications if that is necessary.”
He said he acknowledged that either he or Mr Coveney should have flagged the plans at an earlier stage to the Taoiseach because it was politically sensitive.
“In a coalition no party leader should be surprised in a Cabinet meeting.”
He said he released the text messages in his position on foot of questions from journalists and “thought it prudent to put out all the text messages right away, and I did, and I think they verify my account of the events.”
The Tánaiste said he did not believe the issue was overshadowing Government business but acknowledged that it was “a shadow”.
In relation to FOI records not being released to journalists, he said a new procedure will be put in place to ensure office-holders are asked what records they may have on their phone.
Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar has apologised for a failure to release texts between Ms Zappone and himself discussing the Merrion Hotel gathering and her appointment as special envoy, in response to initial Freedom of Information (FoI) act requests from journalists.
About 50 people attended an event at the Merrion Hotel in July, shortly before Ms Zappone was appointed by Cabinet as special envoy for freedom of expression. She has since stepped away from the role in light of public outcry over the process around that appointment.
Mr Coveney already faces fresh scrutiny from the powerful Oireachtas committee on Foreign Affairs.
Its chairman, Charlie Flanagan, has said members have been in touch with him seeking further clarification about Mr Coveney’s account to the committee at a meeting on Tuesday of the the events leading up to Ms Zappone’s appointment.
“I have been in touch with his office on the matter of some apparent inconsistencies,” Mr Flanagan, a Fine Gael colleague and former minister has said.
The Laois-Offaly TD Barry Cowen was sacked by Mr Martin during the summer of 2020 after a controversy over a four-year-old drink-driving ban.
“I was told that this issue was dominating the public domain and getting in the way of government business. I would argue that this is getting in the way of difficult government business too,” Mr Cowen told RTÉ on Thursday.
Asked if either Mr Coveney or Mr Varadkar should resign, he said: “If they feels so, that’s their decision. If they don’t feel so, the Taoiseach has a decision to make and that’s his business.”
Requests for records of any correspondence, including texts, between Mr Varadkar and Ms Zappone about the controversial hotel gathering, were made by The Irish Times to the Tánaiste’s department under the FoI act in August.
In a response on August 21st, the Department of Enterprise refused the request, stating: “the record concerned does not exist or cannot be found after all reasonable steps to ascertain its whereabouts have been taken”.
It emerged on Wednesday that Mr Varadkar had exchanged a number of texts with Ms Zappone, which he published, discussing her event in the Merrion Hotel, as well as her appointment by the Government as a UN special envoy for human rights.
Mr Varadkar has said he was on annual leave at the time the FoI request was processed and was not contacted to check his phone for any records.
The department’s response to the FoI request had stated “detailed discussions” with staff in the Tánaiste’s office had taken place to identify if any correspondence existed.
In refusing the request, the department noted it had tried “all practicable, possible means” of identifying any correspondence between Mr Varadkar and Ms Zappone.
In his statement on Thursday, Mr Varadkar said he had looked into the issue within his department.
“The relevant FoI office who received the request checked all emails and letters and found no records,” he said.
“I was on annual leave at the time the decision was released and I wasn’t contacted to check my phone for records,” he added.
Mr Varadkar said procedures would be put in place to ensure “this does not recur”, adding “we are of course sorry this happened”.
Mr Coveney faces scrutiny on several fronts.
His account of text exchanges with Mr Varadkar in mid-July about Ms Zappone’s proposed role as a special envoy was contradicted when Mr Varadkar released the content of the texts on Wednesday.
They showed that Mr Varadkar was fully aware of the role and that the decision to give her the position had been effectively made at that stage.
Mr Coveney had intimated to the committee that the concept of the role was still being considered at the time.
He also said Ms Zappone had not lobbied, yet the texts showed she had made an active enquiry to Mr Varadkar about the position.
Speaking on RTÉ on Thursday, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed there was cronyism on the part of Fine Gael in Government and there had also been lobbying by Ms Zappone.
“What we have seen here is the latest instalment of insider, cosy crony politics around Fine Gael in particular,” she said.
“It’s clear that a makey-up job was provided for a friend of the Government, in this case Katherine Zappone.
“Despite protestations at the beginning, there was lobbying underway for this job. It’s clear that Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney were across all this and the Taoiseach was kept in the dark.
“It’s clear that Simon Coveney was less than forthcoming at the committee and in fact offered misleading and incomplete information.” She said the Minister needed to go back into the committee and give a full frank and credible explanation as to what happened.
“The Taoiseach needs to take action. It’s incredible to see yet again the head of Government blindsided by the two principals from Fine Gael,” she said.
Fine Gael Minister Simon Harris, speaking on the same programme said Mr Coveney would supply clarification but rejected the charge it was a “divvy-up” for Ms Zappone.
He argued that Mr Cowen comparing his case to Mr Coveney’s was not an appropriate comparison.
“We are not comparing apples with apples here. Simon Coveney was going about his job.
“He admitted many weeks ago that the process followed was not right and has apologised to the Taoiseach.
“Lessons have been learned. There has to be a sense of perspective.”
Separately, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin has described Cabinet leaks to the media as “a very serious matter” and that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for them to happen.
The leak about the appointment of Ms Zappone as a UN special envoy was “an internal matter for Fine Gael”. That was not the way to do Government business, she said. “I would not be satisfied with that,” she told RTÉ Radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
“I’m not happy with the process and I’m not happy with the matter being landed on Cabinet. I hope lessons are learned. I would expect much better practice.”
It was “absolutely unacceptable that leaks would happen like that,” she added. “If the motivation behind the leak is to cause trouble, that’s for that individual to sit back and examine themselves.
“It’s a serious matter and an unnecessary distraction for where we are as a country now as we’re trying to navigate our way out of Covid when we should be focusing on housing and health.”
On the issue of the Minister for Foreign Affairs deleting texts, Ms Martin said that she was not in the habit of conducting Government business by text and that within her department it was quite clear that official business should be conducted through official email accounts.
In circumstances where that was not possible and texts were used then a full record of communications should be kept, she said.
Labour party leader Alan Kelly told the same programme that there was “an Orwellian feel” about the issue and that “some Ministers were more equal than others.”
It appeared that the Taoiseach was “willing to put up with anything” to remain in power, he claimed.