Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As Deputy Ó Laoghaire has said, I was in my constituency that morning. Generally I am not there on a Thursday but the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, was officially opening the Eureka Secondary School building so I was there for a number of hours. I was due to be in Dublin directly after that but due to unforeseen personnel circumstances I had to cancel two events. One was the launch of the consent campaign and the other was supporting an organisation that works with women who have addiction problems who are victims of domestic violence. I was not able to attend either of these events and my colleagues stepped in for me. I received a call from the Secretary General at approximately 2.30 p.m. alerting me to the fact there had been a stabbing incident on Parnell Street. It was perhaps 20 minutes later when I spoke to the Garda Commissioner. He had been at a Policing Authority meeting in Waterford. There was a 20-minute gap given the fact he was at the meeting. I spoke to a number of people in the interim period. I was in Dublin at approximately 5 p.m. I left my home prior to 4 p.m. In that hour I spent time on the phone to be honest.