Taoiseach to face fresh pressure from Martin

Taoiseach Enda Kenny will come under renewed pressure this week to explain the circumstances in which Fine Gael Seanad byelection candidate John McNulty was appointed to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma).

Mr Kenny has accepted full responsibility for the debacle and pledged that it will not happen again but the issue is set to dominate proceedings when the Dáil meets tomorrow.

The Taoiseach will come under pressure from the Opposition to provide more details of exactly what his role, if any, was in Mr McNulty’s appointment to the Imma board and his selection as a Seanad candidate.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said yesterday that he would be seeking a special debate in the Dáil tomorrow about Mr Kenny’s handling of the affair.

‘Fundamental questions’

“This controversy has gone on way too long and the Taoiseach needs to answer very fundamental questions that have been ignored to date. The Taoiseach’s half-hearted apology on Friday has not cleared up the mess”, said Mr Martin.

He added that under Standing Order 33 of the Dáil, Fianna Fáil would table a Private Notice Question to deal with this whole affair and he expected the Taoiseach to attend the chamber and to give a detailed explanation, outlining the entire sequence of events.

“Not only has the Taoiseach again shown his disdain for the Seanad but I believe he has insulted the integrity of Imma with his actions and that both bodies are owed a fulsome apology,” said Mr Martin.

Full account

Mr Kenny will also be expected to give his own TDs and senators a full account of what happened when the Fine Gael parliamentary party meets on Wednesday.

Waterford backbench TD John Deasy made some highly critical comments about the Taoisaech’s leadership style when the controversy erupted last week.

Mr Deasy claimed Fine Gael TDs were disgusted at the way Mr Kenny is running the party and that there was a culture in Government where any criticism, warranted or not, had consequences.

He attacked the appointments made to Government saying that the criteria for promotion was the ability to grovel to the party leader and read a script. He added that some of the people promoted to ministerial positions were not fit for the job.

Another Fine Gael TD who was extremely critical of the way the McNulty issue has been handled was Seán Conlon of Cavan-Monaghan.

He focused his criticism on the manner in which his constituency colleague Heather Humphreys had dealt with the matter and her approval of the appointment of Mr McNulty to the board of Imma just six days before his formal Seanad nomination.