Simon Coveney still has questions to answer over the Zappone text messages controversy, according to the Higher Education Minister.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said he deleted text messages with Ms Zappone about her appointment to a special envoy role due to security concerns.
He said he regularly clears his phone after previously being the victim of a hack.
He originally told the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee that he deleted the texts for storage reasons; however, his spokesperson later clarified that he regularly clears his phone after previously being hacked.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, The Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said he does not believe Minister Coveney mislead the committee.
“I think he took questions and answered them very honestly,” he said.
“In many ways, the reason we are talking about the text messages is because Minister Coveney told the committee about the text messages – this wasn’t information he was trying to conceal.
“It is important to say and I think he would say himself he obviously didn’t have the text messages in front of him at the time so he was going on memory and therefore wording can be slightly different when a text message is published but I think the essence of what he was saying very much stacks up.”
Text messages
Yesterday, the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar released his own text messages with Minister Coveney about the appointment.
This morning, Minister Varadkar apologised for the delay in releasing het information after it emerged journalists had previously requested them under Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation.
He said he was on annual leave at the time of the request and the Freedom of Information (FOI) officer in his department failed to ask him for the text messages
“The relevant FOI officer who received the request checked all emails and letters and found no records” he said.
“I was on annual leave at the time the decision was released and I wasn’t contacted to check my phone for records.
“We’ll put in place procedures to ensure this does not recur. The relevant records are being sent to the journalists. We are, of course, sorry this happened.”
Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy on the plinth outside Leinster House, 13-08-2021. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNewsEarlier on Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said big question marks remain.
“Journalists were informed via official correspondence – and this is under the Freedom of Information Act, there is very clear and very definitive legal obligations on departments and individuals – and they were told that hose records did not exist,” he said.
“We now know that hey absolutely did exist so there are questions in that regard.”
Questions
Minister Harris said there are still questions to be answered – and insisted Minister Coveney is happy to do so.
“I think it is very clear to say there are questions that people still want answered,” he said.
“I have heard Oireachtas committee members looking for answers – Indeed the chair of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs committee Charlie Flanagan has said there are questions they want answered.
“I know the department has committed to publishing quite a bit of paperwork to show how this process was handled in the department and I think that is the appropriate place for those questions to be answered and I know Simon Coveney will be only too willing to do that.”
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