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Dáil
‹ Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation

FOI article on Iveagh House event

Summary

Deputy Doherty challenged the Government’s account of the Iveagh House event, citing an FOI-based article. The Tánaiste said a departmental report is under way and judgment should wait until it is published.

In fairness to the Tánaiste, only he could claim that rents increasing by 2% is a freeze on rents. By God, if that is where he is, God help renters out there.

I will ask him about an article by Darragh McDonagh published this morning that is based on records released under freedom of information. It clearly debunks the line peddled by the Tánaiste and other members of the Government that the event held in Iveagh House in June was an impromptu one. We now know that departmental officials were told to gather "down the back of the...[office]" in an email from the Secretary General's office the day before the event. Does the Tánaiste now accept that there needs to be a proper investigation into what happened and not an internal review, given what we now know? If so, when will that happen? Is he confident that no other gathering of this type happened in other Departments or Government residences?

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Leo Varadkar The Tánaiste Fine Gael

I have not had a chance to read that article. The report is being done at the moment by the Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs. It is entirely appropriate that he should do that; he is the Accounting Officer. We should wait until we see that report. We will pass judgment when we have it.

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