FF wants Dáil record corrected over Russian ambassador claims

Fianna Fáil is to ask the Taoiseach to correct the Dáil record after it emerged he incorrectly said that Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan had personally met the Russian ambassador.

In response to questions from Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, Mr Kenny had told the Dáil that Mr Flanagan had called in the Russian ambassador to express the Government's objections to Russia's role in the Syria conflict.

Asked if the Government had summoned the ambassador, Mr Kenny replied: "The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade called in the Russian ambassador last Tuesday and left him in no uncertain terms as to how this country feels about the human catastrophe that is unfolding and has unfolded in Syria and particularly Aleppo.

"The Minister made perfectly clear our absolute disgust at and abhorrence of the bombing of a United Nations humanitarian convoy going into Aleppo to relieve people who have had neither food nor water for quite some time."

Later, Mr Kenny said: “I repeat that our Minister last Tuesday called in the Russian ambassador, leaving him in no uncertain position as to the way this country feels about the humanitarian catastrophe that has afflicted Syria for some time and Aleppo in particular.”

Parliamentary question

However, the Fianna Fáil spokesman on foreign affairs, Darragh O’Brien, sought details on the meeting from the department, in a parliamentary question which has not yet been answered.

Mr O’Brien also met the Russian ambassador, who denied that any meeting with Mr Flanagan had taken place.

Instead, the ambassador said, he had met with two officials from the department, who had raised Syria with him in the course of the meeting.

Mr O’Brien said he would seek that the Taoiseach correct the record of the Dáil.

“The Taoiseach misled the Dáil,” he said. “He was very clear about what he said, and it didn’t happen.”

A spokesman for the Minister for Foreign Affairs said that it was “normal diplomatic practice for a foreign minister to have his views conveyed to an ambassador through his most senior officials, as happened in this case on two occasions and on a further occasion with a senior Russian ministry official visiting Dublin.

"Minister Flanagan has made his views known publicly on the record in the Oireachtas and at the Foreign Affairs Council, " he said.