It was disgraceful that no representative of the Independent benches had been invited to last Thursday's historic signing of the British-Irish Accords at the Iveagh House headquarters of the Department of Foreign Affairs, an angry Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) complained.
The Independents were the only members who had constituents in all parts of the island, he said. He understood that the Department had decided that no Independents would be invited to the ceremony. That was quite appalling. As leader of the group, he had expected to be at the signing.
It was utterly insensitive and hypocritical that the All-Ireland representatives in the Oireachtas had not been included on a day on which there had been much talk of pluralism and of pulling things together. They should be given an explanation for this.
Undertaking to seek an official response to Mr O'Toole's concerns, the leader of the House, Mr Donie Cassidy, said he had thought that it was an oversight that the leader of the Independent group had not been invited.
"However, I was invited as leader of the Fianna Fail group in the Seanad. I was not invited as leader of the Seanad, which is something we can also take up with Foreign Affairs".