The Minister for Justice has categorically denied any attempts to cover-up correspondence from the Department of Justice regarding the Naughton rape case.
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Speaking on RTÉ's
Morning Ireland
, Mr O’Donoghue said he had nothing to hide and that he put all correspondence from the Department of Justice on the case in the public domain as soon as he became aware of it.
Mr O’Donoghue’s remarks follow the revelations last night that there had been an exchange of 15 letters between himself and former Housing Minister Mr Bobby Molloy on the case between 2001 and last week.
Three of the letters sought interventions on behalf of Naughton who was sentenced to 11 years on Tuesday for raping and buggering his daughter between 1987 and 1997.
The letters led to Fine Gael and Labour claims that, on Wednesday, Mr O'Donoghue had tried to hide the knowledge he and Department of Justice officials had about Mr Molloy's interest in the case.
Demanding Mr O'Donoghue's resignation last night, the Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, insisted the letters to and from the courts division showed it knew of Mr Molloy's interest in the case before his secretary rang. "The Minister's statement on Wednesday sought to create the impression that the correspondence was handled by his office and only the phone call was dealt with by the courts division.
Mr O’Donoghue, however, says he only became aware of the letters following a trawl of his Department and that he had put the correspondence in the public domain "at the first opportunity."
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Mr Bobby Molloy
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"Why would I, of all people, who has absolutely nothing to hide in this matter," Mr O’ Donoghue said, "who behaved with perfect propriety in this matter. . . want to hide correspondence where I actually wrote to Mr Molloy and stated categorically on no less than three occasions that I could not interfere with the judiciary and that they were independent in the exercise of their functions."
He also denied that the Morning Irelandeditors had been forced to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to order to get access to the letters.
"There was no need...to invoke the freedom of information act", he added.
"It was my full intention to put this correspondence in the public domain . . .I would be entirely naive, I would be downright stupid, I wouldn’t be fit to be sitting on Ballynagash urban district council if I did not know that there was going to be a freedom of information request in a matter as serious this."
Earlier, on the same programme, Mr Molloy insisted he did not make any direct representations about the case of Patrick Naughton.
He said he forwarded three queries to the Department of Justice on behalf of Naughton’s sister, Ann.