Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste. Let me put this into context for him. When all this was happening and the Tánaiste was leaking a confidential document to an organisation for GPs that did not come within the framework under which the Tánaiste was negotiating in private, the homeless figures passed 10,000 in Ireland for the first time in February 2019 and continued to rise, Social Justice Ireland had reported that one in six, or 760,000, people lived in Ireland with an income below the poverty line and so on, and with the help of children we were on the streets desperately forcing the Government to declare a climate emergency. That was the background. The Tánaiste takes a hands-on approach. I welcome his apology and his acknowledgement but I have asked the Tánaiste when he learnt about that. He said that he did not think about it and therefore he did not learn about it. Then there wasVillagemagazine. I have serious questions on how a whistleblower is telling all he knows now, but I only have a few minutes and will not go into it. There is certainly a context there. I asked the Tánaiste when did he learn. He clearly did not think about it until Villagemagazine rang him or contacted his office, presumably in relation to what it was going to print. Did I understand the Tánaiste to say he did not reply to that?

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