Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the appointment did not go ahead. I made that point earlier. Lessons have to be learned. New processes and procedures have to be put in place. Simply saying that envoys were employed previously without such a furore is not good enough considering that the appointment in question was of a former Minister and close colleague in the last Government.

I am aware that there are much more pressing items this week, such as Afghanistan, the removal of the Covid restrictions and the Housing for All document. I do not want to play "gotcha" but when this was an issue some months ago, I was led to believe or I understood that the Tánaiste only became aware of the details associated with the appointment immediately before the Cabinet meeting at which the proposal was made. I now believe the Minister is saying he was contacted by the Tánaiste by text saying that he would be meeting Katherine Zappone in the coming days and that he needed to know whether there was anything he should be aware of. The Minister informed him that he was considering her for a role as a special envoy. There is a lot of information in that alone that would suggest the Tánaiste knew a lot more than might be suggested by the view that he got the specific details immediately before the meeting. On what exact date did the Secretary General and Katherine Zappone agree terms, given that the Minister offered her the post subject to those terms being agreed? On what date was the Tánaiste informed? On what date was the Cabinet meeting? I want to know in order that we can see a timeline. I ask these questions with the best will in the world. Thankfully, the appointment did not take place. Lessons have been learned and we have to move on. At the time the appointment was made, the inference was that the information mistakenly only came to bear immediately before the Cabinet meeting. That is not exactly correct, for whatever reasons. Could the Minister clarify the issue so we can put it behind us, move on and deal with much more pressing and important matters from here on in?