Tánaiste Micheál Martin said on Thursday he stood by comments he made in the Dáil last week about The Ditch website and one of its backers, Web Summit founder Paddy Cosgrave, after Mr Cosgrave claimed Mr Martin’s comments had been an abuse of Dáil privilege and had breached its standing orders.
Mr Cosgrave shared a submission online which he said he had filed to the clerk of the Dáil, claiming Mr Martin had breached standing orders 71 and 72 when he addressed the House last week.
Mr Martin described The Ditch as “a political organisation” that wanted to attack and undermine confidence in the Government. He said he did not see the website as an “independent media platform at all”, adding that the website was conducting a “political campaign” against the Government. The Ditch rejected the claims.
In his submission, Mr Cosgrave said the Tánaiste’s comments were “entirely false” and he claimed the comments had “adversely affected” his reputation.
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When asked for his reaction to Mr Cosgrave’s submission, Mr Martin replied: “I’d ask him [Mr Cosgrave] to read what I said in the Dáil, and there’s nothing there that’s not factual. In respect of what I said in the Dáil, he’s [Mr Cosgrave] now doing that classic thing of saying I said things that I didn’t actually say in the Dáil.”
Mr Martin sad he was “surprised” by Mr Cosgrave’s submission, “because he [Mr Cosgrave] is able to dish it out to a fair degree himself”.
“He has attacked the entire Irish media for being sycophants of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, which was news to me,” Mr Martin said.
[ Web Summit funding of €1m for The Ditch as editor rejects ‘anti-government’ tagOpens in new window ]
“I said what I feel needed to be said, in respect of On the Ditch and its work and so on, and these are views I hold, these are views I believe in, it’s my opinion and I strongly hold to those views,” he said.
“The Ditch themselves have acknowledged that Paddy Cosgrave is a strong supporter financially, to the tune of €1 million, that’s €200,000 a year, €1 million over five years, so it confirms what what was said in the Dáil,” he added.
Mr Cosgrave said in response: “I understand the Ceann Comhairle is considering my submission to the clerk concerning the Tánaiste’s breach of standing order 71. I look forward to the outcome of this process.”
The controversy follows on from The Ditch publishing a series of articles about politicians, most notably about Fianna Fáil Minister of State Niall Collins, in relation to his time as a councillor on Limerick County Council 16 years ago. A month after Mr Collins’s wife formally expressed an interest in land owned by the council he did not recuse himself from a meeting of a committee attached to the local authority in which committee members agreed to sell the land on the open market.
Last week the Government, supported by Independent TDs, defeated a motion by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy calling on Mr Collins to take questions in the Dáil on the issue.
Mr Collins responded by making a statement without taking questions, acknowledging that “in hindsight” he should have recused himself from the January 2007 council meeting but he insisted “no law was broken”. His stance was supported by the three Coalition leaders, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Mr Martin and the Green Party’s Eamon Ryan.
Deputy Murphy submitted that he would participate in a Dáil question-and-answer session regarding an unrelated matter if Mr Collins agreed to participate in a similar session on the council land deal.
In response to this, the Tánaiste said: “Again, Paul [Murphy] has said things publicly as well that leaves a lot to be desired, in respect of the way he’s bandied around language like ‘corruption’ and so on, without any basis in respect of previous ministers again, and, you know, he tends to, again, put up a lot of straw men in respect of these issues.”
Mr Murphy told The Irish Times: “Unlike the Tánaiste, I have not hid behind Dáil privilege. Anything I have said in the Dáil I have repeated outside. The Tánaiste and the Taoiseach should stop their distraction techniques. One obstacle after another is presented to avoid Niall Collins simply answering questions.”
