Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall has said that the T\u00e1naiste’s action in leaking a confidential document was unworthy of his office, and his handling of the incident was unacceptable.<\/p>\n
Speaking during the confidence motion in the D\u00e1il, Deputy Shortall said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation we are dealing with here should never have arisen. The T\u00e1naiste, while Taoiseach last year, engaged in an action which was wrong. He was found out and had no choice but to own up. He should have admitted that it was wrong and apologised.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, he never admitted it was wrong. Instead, he concocted a false narrative; a cock and bull story which was patently untrue and which clearly misrepresented the truth on a number of counts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deputy Shortall laid out seven grounds in support of the Social Democrats’ position:<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The T\u00e1naiste leaked a confidential document, which had not been signed off when it was leaked.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0There is no basis to the claim that the T\u00e1naiste had a \u201clegitimate objective\u201d, or that he was \u201chonouring\u201d the Government commitment.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0We know that the NAGP\u2019s intention was to scupper the IMO and upstage the IMO on the eve of their AGM by releasing details of the document.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0If there was any truth in what the T\u00e1naiste claimed, surely he would have urged Dr \u00d3 Tuathail and the NAGP to support and promote the agreement but there is no evidence at all that he did this.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s not that the T\u00e1naiste didn\u2019t know the rules \u2013 he referred to them in response to the raising of the serious matter relating to premature deaths in the air corps. It was he who decided not to abide by them in respect of the IMO document.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0He knew he was bound by the Office Holders\u2019 Code of Conduct, which states: \u201cOffice Holders should respect confidences entrusted to them in the course of their official duties\u201d. The T\u00e1naiste clearly breached this requirement.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The T\u00e1naiste, as leader of Fine Gael, required his Cabinet colleagues to demean themselves by parroting the cynically crafted spin lines, repeating his untrue narrative.<\/p>\n
November 10, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats co-leader R\u00f3is\u00edn Shortall has said that the T\u00e1naiste’s action in leaking a confidential document was unworthy of his office, and his handling of the incident was unacceptable. Speaking during the confidence motion in the D\u00e1il, Deputy Shortall said: \u201cThe situation we are dealing with here should never have arisen. The T\u00e1naiste, while Taoiseach […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,264],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","category-roisin-shortall"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n