Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for tabling this question. I rarely bother to correct inaccuracies in newspapers. I do so occasionally but most of the time I let them pass, otherwise I would spend most of my life doing nothing other than writing to newspapers. In this case, I wrote to the editor of The Connacht Tribune, although I did not write when the initial report was published because I thought there was no point. The Deputy knows about quotes and misquotes. However, when Keep Ireland Open wrote to The Connacht Tribune on 4 March, I wrote this letter to the editor:

Dear Editor

I refer to the letter written by the above to your newspaper on the above date, in which he makes remarks on comments attributed to me at a meeting of a Fianna Fáil Cumman in Recess (Connacht Notes, The Connacht Tribune, 11 February).

I would like to clarify that the remarks, as attributed to me, were not in my view a clear and fair representation of what I said at that meeting. As the reporter in question did not contact me to verify the accuracy of the remarks, and as the reporter was not, also, present at the meeting, I take it that the report was written on the basis of second hand reporting of the discussion at what was a private meeting.

As I said at the end of my letter, my views on walkways issues are well known and have been articulated time and again in public fora, particularly at the conference in Portlaoise.

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