Sir, – The controversy raging over the appointment of Katherine Zappone to a Mickey Mouse position is a storm in a teacup.
Embittered, disgruntled backbench Fianna Fáil TDs want to make much of it.
What bothers me, an uncommitted voter, is that the mobilephone of our Minister for Foreign Affairs was compromised.
– Yours, etc,
BA TAPLEY,
Killiney,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – In a radio interview on Thursday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin was asked if Katherine Zappone should release copies of the missing text messages exchanged with Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
He replied: “Yes...for full transparency, any information that’s there should be made available.”
Zappone is a private citizen, and there is no legal onus on her either to retain or release text messages to or from any person. Coveney is a Minister, who is legally obliged to retain all electronic communications made in connection with his work.
And yet the Taoiseach believes that there is an onus on Zappone to release the text conversations from her personal phone, to compensate for the fact that they had been destroyed by Coveney.
If the Taoiseach believes these text messages should be released into the public domain, then his first action should be to dismiss Coveney from Cabinet for having committed actions which prevented their disclosure through normal legal channels.
The fact that he has not done so, or sought to enforce even the mildest sanction against Coveney, is an embarrassing illustration of his lack of authority.
– Yours, etc,
THOMAS RYAN,
Harold’s Cross,
Dublin 6W.
Sir, – We are in the middle of a global pandemic; the HSE is trying to recover €35 million from China for non-delivery of ventilators; we have declared a climate emergency; we have an escalating mental health crisis; the three-month grace period around the Northern Ireland protocol is coming to an end; we have an ongoing housing crisis, and a number of Irish citizens are still stranded in Afghanistan – and what are we taking about? Text messages about a job paying about €15,000 per annum.
You really couldn’t make this up. – Yours, etc,
GARY DOYLE,
Straffan,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – Years ago politicians recorded favours for their friends on the back of cigarette boxes which they later tore up and threw in the bin.
Now it appears they use phone texts for this purpose which also end up in the bin.
Times change and technology moves on, but it seems politicians still behave the same.
– Yours, etc,
NOEL SHANAGHY,
Faithlegg,
Co Waterford.
Sir, – The media has been happy to feast themselves on the manner of the appointment of Katherine Zappone to a UN envoy role by the Cabinet in July, and to question the bona fides of those involved in the process.
Why has the same focus not been brought to bear on the behaviour of the individual who leaked the news of the appointment from the Cabinet table?
Is this not also a breach of the law; in fact, of the Constitution itself? Or is it simply too inconvenient for journalists to discuss the behaviour of such a useful source? – Yours, etc,
SEAN MEEHAM,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.