Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was at the event in Washington last week when the Taoiseach told his tale on how he intervened on behalf of Donald Trump with regard to a planning application close to Trump's Doonbeg resort in County Clare. The relaying of this tale raised a real concern for many people because of the past experiences in the State of political and ministerial interference in the planning process and all that flowed from that. It is a bad situation when a Minister takes a call from a wealthy businessman and makes such an informal intervention on his behalf. There is no way on earth that an ordinary person would have such privileged access or such an intervention. There is scope for inappropriate contact, or at least the perception of inappropriate contract, where Ministers take such calls from wealthy business people on planning matters and then raise the matters in this manner.

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