De Rossa apologises over answer to Dail query

THE Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, has written to the Dail's Ceann Comhairle apologising to members of the House who…

THE Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, has written to the Dail's Ceann Comhairle apologising to members of the House who "may feel they were misled" by his statement on the appointment of five advisers to his private office.

However, both Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats last night insisted that the letter to Mr Sean Treacy will not suffice and that Mr De Rossa must still personally apologise in the Dail.

A Fianna Fail spokesman confirmed that a motion demanding that Mr De Rossa resign or explain his remarks to the House remains on the Dail's Order Paper.

The Private Members' motion was withdrawn to allow uninterrupted statements on the peace process today and tomorrow.

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The Minister had stated in the House that the five jobs in the research unit in his Department were not advertised.

However, he acknowledged that notice of the jobs appeared in the Democratic Left newsletter, Forum, under the word "vacancies".

The matter led to uproar in the Dail last week when Fianna Fail insisted that Mr De Rossa retract his statement and when the former Minister for Agriculture Mr Joe Walsh, called him a "liar".

In his letter to the Ceann Comhairle yesterday, Mr De Rossa said that when he informed the Dail on January 23rd that the positions in the Research Unit had not been advertised he was making a statement "in good faith consistent with my understanding of that term".

"As I have stated previously, I do not regard a notice in Forum an internal Democratic Left newsletter, circulated privately and free of charge, to be an advertisement in the commonly accepted understanding of the word. I do not claim that my understanding of the term `advertising' is the only understanding possible, but I do believe it is a valid understanding," he said.

"I very much regret that any member would think that my reply was intended to mislead the House. In so far as some members may feel they were misled, I apologise for that."

However, the Progressive Democrats finance spokesman, Mr Michael McDowell, said his party still expected Mr De Rossa to make a statement to this effect in the Dail.

"It would be rather cowardly of him to write to the Ceann Comhairle and not apologise to the members of the House in the Dail chamber. It is in the House that he must correct the record," Mr McDowell said.

The Minister was also "on very thin ice" for complaining about the remark that he was "a liar" since he had called an archbishop a liar during the divorce campaign and had also thrown the same appellation at him (Michael McDowell) during a television interview on Budget night.