Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 7 September 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence
Appointment of Special Envoys: Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence
Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
That is the main thrust of it. On lobbying, again, all I can do is say to the Senator what I experienced during this period.
I saw the text messages that came from Katherine Zappone to me as from an enthusiastic person who wanted to get an update. I did not see it as lobbying. I did not feel any pressure and if I had, I probably would have responded to those texts and I did not. Instead, I simply left the Department to deal with the matter of whether we would move ahead with the process. It did extensive work on that.
She sent me a number of texts over a number of months following a conversation I had with her because she was enthusiastic about that role. I can absolutely see why, given the narrative that has since developed, many people would see that as lobbying. I certainly did not see it as that.
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