{"id":1669,"date":"2021-09-07T16:02:38","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T15:02:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T16:02:38","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T15:02:38","slug":"coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Coveney Does Not Stretch Credulity &#8211; He Annihilates It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>Mr Coveney asks us to believe that Ms Zappone is a mug. That she not only invented a job offer, she invented a start date for that non-existent job <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Simon Coveney\u2019s latest convoluted explanation of his handling of the botched appointment of Katherine Zappone does not just stretch credulity \u2013 it annihilates it, according to Social Democrats Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Coveney has had multiple occasions to set the record straight in relation to the botched appointment of Katherine Zappone as UN special envoy, but he has failed to do so. The version of events he spun today, at the Foreign Affairs Committee, does not just stretch credulity \u2013 it annihilates it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Coveney asks us to believe that, not only did Ms Zappone misapprehended that a job offer had been made by March 4<sup>th<\/sup>, she also misconstrued a start date. Ms Zappone\u2019s text message to Mr Coveney on May 4<sup>th<\/sup> is clear: \u201cYou [Mr Coveney] mentioned June as a start time.\u201d Mr Coveney tells us this explicit statement from Ms Zappone is a misunderstanding and her earlier exuberance, about the \u201cincredible opportunity\u201d she had been offered, was preemptive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn essence, Mr Coveney asks us to believe that Ms Zappone is a mug. That she not only invented a job offer, she invented a start date for that non-existent job. He asks us to come to this conclusion despite professing himself to be so impressed with her professional ability that he felt she was the only candidate who should be in the running for the role of UN special envoy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Coveney\u2019s definition of lobbying also raises very serious questions. The Minister doesn\u2019t believe Ms Zappone engaged in lobbying as he didn\u2019t feel any pressure from her. The fact that a highly connected person was attempting to influence senior ministers and diplomatic staff in relation to the awarding of a prestigious State job doesn\u2019t amount to lobbying, in Mr Coveney\u2019s view. This is neither credible nor sustainable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Coveney\u2019s idiosyncratic and self-serving definition of lobbying is so narrow as to be non-existent. It raises questions about whether he has the capacity to recognise, and report, lobbying when it occurs. This is obviously hugely troubling given Mr Coveney\u2019s position as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn responding to this controversy, Mr Coveney could have held his hands up, admitted he acted incorrectly and determined to ensure any future appointment was open and transparent. Instead, he has sought to obfuscate, bluster, mislead and equivocate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Minister has further admitted to deleting pertinent text messages in this fiasco, which are official records of government business. Bizarrely, he claims the reason he deleted messages was in some misguided attempt to maintain secure communications \u2013 even though he failed to store the messages, meaning they have now been effectively destroyed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe question that arises for the Taoiseach now is a simple one \u2013 is he the leader of the government or a leader of just Fianna F\u00e1il? It\u2019s certainly difficult to imagine Simon Coveney remaining as Foreign Affairs Minister if Mr Martin had any real authority as Taoiseach.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>7 September, 2021<\/p>\n<p>Ends<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mr Coveney asks us to believe that Ms Zappone is a mug. That she not only invented a job offer, she invented a start date for that non-existent job Simon Coveney\u2019s latest convoluted explanation of his handling of the botched appointment of Katherine Zappone does not just stretch credulity \u2013 it annihilates it, according to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,316,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Coveney Does Not Stretch Credulity - He Annihilates It - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Coveney Does Not Stretch Credulity - He Annihilates It - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mr Coveney asks us to believe that Ms Zappone is a mug. That she not only invented a job offer, she invented a start date for that non-existent job Simon Coveney\u2019s latest convoluted explanation of his handling of the botched appointment of Katherine Zappone does not just stretch credulity \u2013 it annihilates it, according to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/socialdemocratsireland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-07T15:02:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Gary-Cropped-scaled-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1009\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SocDems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ZOO Admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/coveney-does-not-stretch-credulity-he-annihilates-it\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"ZOO Admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/#\/schema\/person\/4aa25e1b0ecfe5e51a2ceab9a9006960\"},\"headline\":\"Coveney Does Not Stretch Credulity &#8211; 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