Minister of State, Mr Willie O'Dea, is considering agreeing to a request from TV3 for him to retract and apologise for a remark he made in the Dáil yesterday about the station's crime correspondent Maura Derrane.
In the course of an exchange of minor insults in the Dáil chamber yesterday Mr O'Dea remarked to the Fine Gael crime spokesman Mr John Deasy: "Perhaps he will get his girlfriend to interview him again on RTE3 [sic]". Mr Deasy is engaged to be married to Derrane, who interviewed him along with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, in a recent TV3 news report.
In a letter to the Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, yesterday afternoon, TV3's director of news, Mr Andrew Hanlon, said this remark clearly referred to Derrane, and suggested that she showed "favouritism and bias" in her work towards her fiancee and therefore abused her position.
Derrane took offence at this remark which was made under Dáil privilege, giving her no avenue of redress, he said. Mr Hanlon asked the Ceann Comhairle to use his offices to secure a retraction and apology from Mr O'Dea after the order of business in the Dáil this morning, the usual time for personal statements by TDs on such matters.
Asked by The Irish Times last night whether he would accede to this request, Mr O'Dea said: "We'll see." He added: "In no way did I intend to reflect on Ms Derrane's integrity or professionalism or in any other way."
However, he said he would not be apologising to Mr Deasy who, he said, had introduced personal remarks to yesterday's debate by referring to Mr O'Dea as not being "the real Minister", a reference to the fact that he is a Minister of State.
"I've never got personal in 22 years in the Dáil," he said, but he would not tolerate others doing so towards him.