Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Taoiseach and his Fianna Fáil and Green Party colleagues in Government have further shredded their already tattered credibility by fully backing the Minister. They are parroting his ludicrous and blatantly false defence that this was a personal matter between him as a private citizen and another private citizen of Limerick.

In the Dáil yesterday the Taoiseach repeated this when he said: "The Minister was acting in his private capacity, not in pursuance of his ministerial duties."

See this speech in context