Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I accept that.
Mr. Michael McDowell, in the Sunday Independent, wrote:

The cover-up and brazen peddling of lies to the public that we have witnessed even since the Taoiseach apologised and pretended to take personal responsibility for the affair shows that the interests of the Fine Gael party comes ... before ... political accountability and the maintenance of public confidence in the politics of this State.

My leader, Deputy Micheál Martin, suggested - correctly, I think - that, as the Taoiseach accepted responsibility and the Minister accepted responsibility, the story was unravelling as it got made up.
There are questions that the Minister present should answer before this House, and should have answered before now. She is probably aware of them. Who in Fine Gael instructed the Minister to appoint Mr. McNulty to IMMA? What was the reason given by this anonymous official for advocating the appointment? What authority did the official cite in requesting the appointment from a Minister of the Government? Did he or she mention the Taoiseach or a Seanad campaign, or did the person simply state that he or she was acting on his or her own initiative due to Mr. McNulty's interest in being appointed to, in the Minister's own words, "an arts board"? Were written records kept of this interaction with the Fine Gael official? Was the Minister aware, or was she notified by her officials, that the appointments breached current Government policy on board size? If so, why did she override them? Why was a particular decision apparently made to increase the number of board members of IMMA? Was the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform notified, as it should have been?
Did the Minister for the Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht personally contact Mr. McNulty before the appointment? Was she acquainted with Mr. McNulty before the appointment? Why did Mr. McNulty accept the appointment knowing, first, that he would have to resign from the board in the event of his election to the Seanad and, second, that - as should have been known to the Department at least, and to the Minister's advisers - he would have had to resign even as a candidate? It should have been known that he was not validly appointed and really could not be a member of the board as a candidate.
Did the Taoiseach, to the Minister's knowledge, instruct Fine Gael headquarters to appoint Mr. McNulty? The Taoiseach claims he did not know Mr. McNulty was on the board of IMMA, so why did he state that Mr. McNulty was on the board of IMMA on the nomination papers for the Seanad by-election? Did the Taoiseach ask the Minister to say nothing over the past couple of weeks? There seems to have been a deliberate policy not to answer questions on this subject. Can she state whether she voted for Mr. McNulty in the Seanad by-election?