Minister of State for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen has said an office misunderstanding led to two letters being sent to the Minister for Justice urging that a sex offender be released early from prison.
But the Clare TD insisted he had only instructed staff at his Co Clare constituency office to write letters to the Irish Prison Service to draw attention to the poor health of his constituent Joseph Nugent, who was jailed for six years in 2002 for sex offences.
Mr Killeen said today that his constituency office staff misunderstood his instructions and that he has since apologised to Nugent's victim over the issue.
He said: "I instructed the office staff to - as they generally would and as I would in cases of humanitarian issues - bring to the authority's attention the fact that his family and his family friends had been saying that he [Nugent] had been assaulted in prison and that he feared for his life and that there were major health issues, and that would always have been my policy in relation to issues of a humanitarian nature.
"Unfortunately the office staff either misunderstood, or through whatever means also sought this prisoner's release," he said on radio today.
Another Clare TD, Pat Breen of Fine Gael, was heavily criticised last October for making representations for an early release for Nugent in a Dáil question on behalf of Nugent's family.
Mr Killeen said he did not come forward at the time his constituency colleague Mr Breen was criticised for making representations because an administrative failure prevented him checking on any correspondence.
"At that stage I didn't know that the letters had sought his release and, when I checked with the constituency office staff, they didn't have the records as all the records had been deleted the previous November in a maintenance error.
He added: "There was no way of checking exactly what had happened, but I was somewhat concerned and continued to follow up during Christmas when I had time to follow up and I did feel that there was some risk that they might have sought his release and on that basis I clarified the position".
But Fiona Neary, executive director of the Rape Crisis Network Ireland, called for an explanation from Fianna Fáil head office. "We are simply appalled that this happened. We understand two letters were sent from Minister Killeen's office," Ms Neary said.
"This is, therefore, not a one-off error, it may in fact amount to unacceptable practice. We would like to hear from the Fianna Fáil party in the strongest possible terms what its policies are regarding constituency activity in seeking to intervene in the legal process.
"Given the difficulty in convicting serious sex offenders, to then have politicians attempt to interfere with the course of justice on behalf of those convicted criminals is totally reprehensible," she said.
PA