Zappone and Fraser to be invited before Oireachtas committee

Katherine Zappone is to be invited to give her side of the story over her appointment as a UN special envoy to the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee.

The committee, which is meeting on Wednesday in private session agreed to write to the former minister and invite her to appear before it.

It is understood the decision was taken at a private meeting of the committee after it was proposed by Sinn Féin spokesman on foreign affairs John Brady and his Social Democrats counterpart Gary Gannon.

The committee is also to invite Martin Fraser, the secretary general of the Department of the Taoiseach and the State’s highest-ranking civil servant, to address the issue of precisely when Ms Zappone’s name was communicated to the Department of the Taoiseach.

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The committee has also agreed to write to the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Dáil’s business committee about the leaking of correspondence from the Minister to some media outlets before his second appearance at the committee.

At the time, following a report in The Irish Times, Mr Brady tweeted that it was “totally unacceptable” that Mr Coveney’s letter was leaked to the media before committee members had seen it. Mr Brady said at the time he had been sent a copy of the letter before he was notified by committee chair Charlie Flanagan that it had been received.