John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was away in August and perhaps on a trade mission in September. The particular e-mail that the official wrote was out of a reconciliation. We were sitting down at that stage, talking to each other and there was a better understanding of these trade missions and my role in the context of the trade section. I do not have the document in front of me but I believe he acknowledged in the letter that the exchange in the conversation about Canada was a reasonable one. I believe that was the term used. We talked about Canada but it was a question and it was around the expectation. It was my first time, or perhaps the second time, to sit down with the official in the context of all of what had happened. Fences were being mended and we were sorting things out and that was the end of it.