Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My party has a structure in place for dealing with applications and the validation of candidates for all elections. There is a process through our executive council whereby that happens. This was set in place in the early part of the summer. A sub-committee of the executive council made a recommendation for a number of names to be considered for the Seanad, which was their responsibility. Subsequently, Deputy McGinley announced his retirement and I looked at the possibility of the appointment of a candidate for the Seanad from Donegal. My rationale was that this was a Fine Gael seat in the Seanad which was made vacant by the election of Senator Deirdre Clune to the European Parliament. For that reason that process was not followed, nor was I informed of the state of play of the validation exercise.

Secondly, I accepted responsibility for taking my eye off this situation when I should have been more diligent about seeing it through. I have already said that publicly. As a follow through on that, without having any Jesuitical distinction between these two things, as Head of Government I have now put in place the structure and framework to deal with all appointments, non-remunerated and remunerated, to semi-State boards and other organisations so that will be entirely free of the political assessment before appointment. This is as it should be and I think it is something that everybody can support. The effective date of implementation is 1 November 2014.

I am not happy about the situation as it evolved in the Fine Gael process, nor was I informed of that situation. For those reasons I feel it is beneath the standards that I have set myself. It is beneath the trust placed in us by our supporters and is beyond the integrity of the way we fight elections. For that reason, I felt strongly that this seat should not be accepted in these circumstances. Mr. John McNulty, an excellent candidate in every respect, understands that and has therefore formally requested Oireachtas Members not to vote for him.

See this speech in context