Catherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for returning to our committee. It would be remiss not to commend the Chair and the members of the committee. We know that, today, there is a lot more information in the public domain on this matter than there was the last time we met, so I think we are going through a very valid exercise in regard to this questioning and this type of interrogation today.

I have a few questions and comments. I find it quite dochreidte - I use the Irish word because I will be commenting from a programme this morning - that a narrative is being peddled that Katherine Zappone misunderstood what the Minister was offering her on 26 February. She is a very capable woman, a former Minister, and it just beggars belief that she would get the messaging wrong on whether a role was being offered to her. I note other Members of the Oireachtas were on radio this morning and, on the "Adhmhaidin" programme, one of my colleagues said nach raibh an post le tabhairt ag Simon Coveney agus mar sin gur míthuiscint a bhí ann agus nár ghá an buíochas ó Katherine Zappone. The suggestion is that she completely got this wrong. It would be interesting to find out from Katherine Zappone now if that is the case. Does she believe she got the messaging on 4 March wrong and, if so, I wonder has the Minister been in touch with her, or if anybody has been in touch with her, on what her thoughts are on this.

The second misunderstanding I would like to raise with the Minister is that of the Tánaiste. We know that, on 28 July, the Tánaiste said he understood Katherine Zappone asked the Minister, Deputy Coveney, for the role. This was reported in The Irish Timesand on RTÉ news. Repeatedly today, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, has said it is clear the role came from him. He stated to my colleague, Deputy Lawless, that the communication was very clear one-way from his Department to former Minister Zappone and that he asked her specifically if she would be interested in the role of a special envoy.

I am quite interested in how the Tánaiste also came to this misunderstanding.

There is another matter as well. This is going over a lot of ground that has been covered but it relates to the text messages. The Minister says he is very glad the Tánaiste published the text messages the Minister deleted because it completely backs up what he said to the committee. I disagree with that. At last week's meeting, the Minister said that the text from the Tánaiste stated that the Minister was speaking to Katherine Zappone and he was wondering if there was anything he needed to know when, in fact, the Tánaiste texted the Minister asking specifically about the special envoy role. The Minister informed the committee last week that he wrote back to the Tánaiste stating the special envoy role was just a concept, whereas the texts from the Tánaiste go further and there is a lot of detail in them in relation to the type of contract. I put forward that there is a large discrepancy between the Minister's version of the texts and the actual texts. I would go so far as to say they are not consistent with what the Minister said last week.

The final issue I raise has been mentioned by many of my colleagues. Does the Minister still believe he was not lobbied for this role? That is an important question to ask and it is important that the Minister answer it. It is remarkable how many people were contacted in relation to the role. Everyone at home will be imagining going for a job interview for a role they were able to come up with and write themselves. It is astonishing. People deserve answers and a bit of transparency and today is the time for that. We are giving the Minister an opportunity to come clean and let us know exactly what happened.