Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

It is quite striking that amid all the praise of the Minister, Deputy Coveney, as a great statesman and everything else, there has been an absence of a repetition by the Government of the detailed narrative that he put forward to cover up clear cronyism. I think that is because to simply lay out fact after supposed fact would reveal how ridiculous this is. I will go through a few issues with what the Minister claims. He claims there was no lobbying for this position. He slightly revised his position at the second committee meeting, when he said that there was no formal lobbying for this position. Obviously for anyone who can read and can see Katherine Zappone's messages, there is no question that that was lobbying. Second, he claimed that no job was offered until July, despite a text message from Katherine Zappone stating, "Thank you so, so much for offering me this incredible opportunity." That was before the job specification was even written and she obviously had a hand in writing that later. The Minister then claimed that he deleted the message about this because his phone was running out of space. I think the Minister has an iPhone, if not a high-end Android. They can contain approximately 350 million messages. I am sure he is a popular man and receives many text messages but that was incredible.

That story was changed in 12 hours. The story was then that the Minister deleted the messages because his phone was subject to a security breach, hacking, etc. The only problem with that, which came up at the second committee appearance, is that to square the circle of not breaching the Freedom of Information Act with the Minister simultaneously saying that he deletes text messages because of his phone being hacked, he said that he does not breach the Freedom of Information Act, that he does not delete any message to do with Government business, and he deletes the other messages. He is telling us that he deletes the unimportant messages, not the ones related to Government business, and leaves the messages about Government business on the phone for Government hackers to be able to access. It is nonsense. Every aspect of the story is complete nonsense. It is clearly in contrast to what the Taoiseach said earlier.

It is clearly a breach of the Freedom of Information Act to delete text messages between a Minister and the Tánaiste relating to the appointment of someone to a Government position. Why does any of this matter? This cronyism, which is being covered up, is not an accident or a bug. It is a feature of how capitalism, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael operate.

Look at those protesting about the housing crisis outside this House. It was the Minister, Deputy Coveney, who produced the Rebuilding Ireland plan - it has been deleted from the Internet but still exists in hard copy - which was about inviting in vulture funds, real estate investment funds, REITs, and corporate landlords. It was the Minister who wrote the legislation in conjunction with, and at the behest of, the developers of strategic housing developments, with disasters across the city and country as a consequence. It was the Minister who said that by July 2017 we would see an end to homeless people in hotels and emergency accommodation. That situation still exists today. These are the consequences of the policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They have a wafer-thin majority now. The Government should go and allow people to kick it out.

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