Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

It is a slur on my character and that of members of the selection committee. What happened was a comedy of errors and I have been careful not to point a finger at any person who was missing. In the week before 4 June, on both the Wednesday and the Thursday, I was contacted indirectly by the Leader with a request that a Committee of Selection be held as soon as possible so as not to hold up the banking inquiry. We agreed that would happen the following week. I rang the Leader on the morning of 4 June to ask whether it was in order to call a meeting. He told me to proceed as soon as possible and to have the meeting that evening rather than postpone it further. There was no political chicanery and no stroke was pulled. There was a comedy of errors. People turned up and voted in a particular way that I did not as Chairman anticipate. For the Tánaiste to place on the record of Dáil Éireann, of which I was a Member in the past, that a political stroke was pulled is unacceptable. I want that corrected. I hope the Leader will acknowledge---