Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We do not have all day so we will try to go by the Vice Chairman's maxim on brevity.

Deputy McGuinness initially gave the impression that when he made the inquiry about his wife travelling with him it was almost a casual inquiry which sparked a litany of e-mail traffic. I put it to Deputy McGuinness that on reading some of the correspondence one does not form that impression. I will quote from one official. She said that if there was official guidance she would appreciate it and that she was refusing for the moment to sign the authorisation which was solely for the Minister's wife and so on. She continued by saying that she did not particularly like starting her relationship with the then Minister of State, Deputy McGuinness, with a row but that it had to be and so on. It strikes me from reading that correspondence that in the mind of the official it was not a case of a casual inquiry into whether it would be okay to bring his wife along. That correspondence suggests that there was a vigorous exchange or that the official might even have felt under pressure to agree with Deputy McGuinness's position and go along with it.