Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Ceann Comhairle will know that Standing Order 46 states: "The Ceann Comhairle shall have discretion to permit any member to make a personal explanation in the Dáil". He will also know that I made this request to him yesterday.

Our press officer was contacted yesterday evening by a journalist, Niall O'Connor, from the Irish Independent. In an e-mail he stated that the Government press secretary had released the following statement: "Deputy Adams has not yet made an application to the Ceann Comhairle for speaking time tomorrow." If Niall O'Connor's claim is true, I ask the Ceann Comhairle to make it clear that it is not the business of the Government or anyone else to be deliberately misleading the media or facilitating the media misleading anyone else about what communications I have had or have not had with the Ceann Comhairle. It is not the business of the Government to comment at all on the Ceann Comhairle or his office, which is an independent office. I raised this question with the Ceann Comhairle yesterday evening.

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