A Fine Gael TD has accused the Taoiseach and those close to him of an attempt to damage his reputation following leaks to a newspaper over a dispute involving a ring.
Seán Conlan, a deputy for Cavan-Monaghan, this morning said Enda Kenny needs to answer questions about how an email sent only to him and one other Minister by an antiques dealer had found its way into a national newspaper.
The email had been sent to Mr Kenny and the other Minister by Freya Hart, an antiques dealer based in Nottinghamshire. It concerned alleged difficulties over payment in relation to a ring worth €10,000 that Mr Conlan and his girlfriend Sarah Comiskey had viewed at her stall during the summer.
Mr Conlan said he had brought the ring back to Dublin for appraisal, that there had been a “breakdown in communications for a number of hours” with Ms Hart, but the ring had been returned the following week and the matter had been resolved to everybody’s satisfaction.
During that period before resolution, Ms Hart had emailed both the Taoiseach and the Minister.
Speaking on RTÉ this morning, Mr Conlan asked how the email had come to be on the front page of the Irish Independent.
“How does something like this appear on the page of a national newspaper that has only been received by the Taoiseach and one of his Ministers? Why does it only happen when I make public criticisms of their behaviour?” he said.
Mr Conlan also contended that deliberate attempts were being made to sully his reputation.
“If you don’t grovel and you... don’t follow the edicts of the Taoiseach at every turn, then attempts will be made to damage your reputation.
“I think that attempts have been made to damage my reputation and I’m not happy with it.
“I think we need answers from the Taoiseach because I think it’s beneath any politician to indulge in this type of politics,” he said.
Specifically asked how Ms Hart had been driven to send an email, he said: “I saw the ring. I attend antiques fairs. I took the ring back to Dublin to have it appraised. Based on the appraisal I decided not to purchase the ring, and I returned the ring the following week to Freya.
“Freya’s happy and I’m happy. I’m sure a lot of people buy cars by private treaty and before the purchase they get a mechanic to check it out.”
But asked again why she had taken the extraordinary step of contacting the Taoiseach, he said: “There was a breakdown in communication for a number of hours, but that is not an issue. It’s not an issue that needs to be aired in public.”
He argued there was a fundamental difference between his criticisms of appointments to State boards and the leaking of an email that was totally irrelevant to public policy.
Asked about another issue - that of his constituency colleague, Minister for Arts Heather Humphreys, employing her second cousin as special adviser - Mr Conlan said it was a matter for her.
He himself has been criticised for employing his girlfriend, Ms Comiskey, as his assistant. He again defended the appointment this morning, saying she was the best person to do the job.
In recent months, Mr Conlan has been one of the most outspoken critics of the Fine Gael leadership in the parliamentary party. He told one meeting that the decision to temporarily appoint the party's Seanad byelection candidate John McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art was making Fine Gael seem like "Fianna Fáil lite".
