Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The way it works is that I think it is prudent to remove the information on my phone that is no longer relevant. In other words, if I have had a text conversation with somebody that is done and dusted and I am moving on from it, I would often clear that unless there is a reason to hold onto it. Certainly, when I had the text exchange with the Tánaiste, I regarded that matter as closed and I removed it from my phone in the same way I would do with lots of other text exchanges with people.

I was subsequently very pleased that the Tánaiste published those texts because they backed up the thrust of what I said to the committee last week when in response to questions from Deputy Cowen I volunteered the information - and I was the first to do so - that there was any text exchange at all between myself and the Tánaiste.