Progressive Democrat Minister of State Mr Bobby Molloy last night refused to resign following strong criticism by a High Court judge of an approach made to him by one of the Minister's officials before the sentencing of a rapist.
In the Central Criminal Court, Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan said he had had "a totally improper approach" on March 19th about a letter written by the sister of a man convicted of rape.
Speaking in Leinster House last night, the experienced Minister of State said he had asked a civil servant secretary to ring Mr Justice O'Sullivan's secretary to see whether the judge had received the letter.
Acknowledging that the contact with the judge was "improper", Mr Molloy, however, said: "I do not see it as a resigning matter. I am a long time in the Dáil. I have seen a lot of mistakes made. I have seen very few resignations. I made a mis-call on this particular thing.
"I want to make it quite clear that I made no attempt to contact the judge, or to influence him in this particular case. All I was doing was making an inquiry, as I understood it, as to whether a certain letter had been delivered. I recognise that what I did was wrong."
The "very upset" sister of Patrick Naughton, Cinn Mhara, Camus, Co Galway, had come to his constituency office in Galway shortly after Naughton had been convicted of raping and buggering his daughter but before sentence had been passed.
Mr Molloy disputed Mr Justice O'Sullivan's contention that his secretary had wanted the judge to take a telephone call at home.
"I am totally puzzled about that. There was nothing about that. I am totally positive about that. I did not ask that. I would never have asked that. And she has no recollection of that. She is confident that she did not make such a request. I can't account for it. I certainly never asked her in any way to talk to the judge. In all my years nobody had to tell me about the dividing line of demarcation between the Oireachtas and the judiciary."
He went on: "I am absolutely concerned about the secretary. I asked her to make the call to the judge's secretary. But she got through by mistake directly to the judge, who said the contact was inappropriate and hung up. She was responding to my request. I am the one at fault.
"I apologise to everybody who have been affected or perceive that they have been affected by this, including the judge. I take the blame. It was unfortunate that the call went through directly to the judge."
He realised immediately that a mistake had been made when the secretary informed him she had got through directly to the judge. He had not informed the Tánaiste of the problem at the time.