Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I want to put my first question to the Taoiseach. I wish to refer to his meetings with the Minister, Deputy Zappone. I cannot understand how it could be the case that the Taoiseach could have such a flawed recollection of such significant meetings. On the radio last Sunday, the Taoiseach referred to what he "said to her", referring to the Minister, Deputy Zappone, at a meeting that never took place. How could it then be when he actually did meet the Minister, Deputy Zappone, just before the Cabinet meeting, during which he was told of the Tusla involvement in the McCabe affair, that he proceeded to forget about this meeting almost from that moment and denied it existed when he was asked about it last Sunday? Why did he not mention the Tusla piece of information to the Cabinet? Is the Taoiseach actually suggesting that he did not remember that piece of information when the terms of reference were being discussed? The Minister, Deputy Zappone, said, "I let him know that I had met with the McCabes, that we had discussed Tusla". Is it not the case that if the Minister, Deputy Zappone, had not insisted upon her version of fact, that an entirely incorrect sequencing of events would have remained on the public record subsequent to the Taoiseach's interview last Sunday?

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