This article is from page 3 of the 2006-11-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
LEADER of the opposition Enda Kenny said he was unaware of the contents of legal proceedings being brought by one of his deputies against a national newspaper.
Enda Kenny (FG) told The Clare People that he would not be involving himself in the proceedings.
“I can’t comment on the situation, because I don’t know the situation where legal representatives for either Deputy Pat Breen or a newspaper are involved in discussions. It is not for me to involve myself in any way in that,” he said.
In a solicitor’s letter to The Irish Examiner , Clare Deputy Breen threatened legal action over its reporting of a parliamentary question during which he inquired about the eligibility of convicted paedophile Joseph Nugent for early release.
The letter also embroils two of his general election running mates in the libel action. The article in question contained critical comments by Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn and Cllr Joe Carey on his tabling of a Dáil question.
The editor of The Irish Examiner Tim Vaughan told The Clare People that the national paper “will defend any litigation” on the matter.
He said the paper was willing to join Deputy Breen’s election colleagues, Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn and Cllr Joe Carey as co-defendants.
“We strongly deny that we have defamed or liable him,” he said.
The Clare People attempted to contact Deputy Breen regarding claims in a Sunday newspaper that he also made inquiries about the early release of a convicted murderer.
The Clare People was told that, “Deputy Breen has no comment to make on any other parliamentary question.” The Fine Gael leader said he was satisfied with the Clare deputy’s explanation as to why he tabled the “Nugent” question, but believed he would have done it differently in hindsight.
“When people are elected to the Dáil, irrespective of what party they represent or none, they have a democratic right to ask any question that they want. Now Pat Breen clarified on national radio that in no circumstance was he seeking the early release of a convicted paedophile.
“You can question the phraseology used in the question and I assume as the Taoiseach said at his Ard Fheis speech that in hindsight people would live perfect lives if they knew certain things were going to happen,” he contined.
“So I’m happy that Pat Breen was in no way attempting to seek the early release of a convicted paedophile,” he added.
“It is the right of every deputy to ask a question but probably, in hindsight, I would say Deputy Breen might have phrased his question differently.”
Deputy Kenny believes that the issue has done no permanent damage to the party in Clare.
“We have had some discussion ourselves about the strategy that I want the candidates to adopt, and I want to move on from this and I want everyone to understand the fundamentals of that, and that we have a situation where we have all candidates fighting the Government on the issues that matter for Clare, and that campaign will be sufficiently strong to secure a second seat for us, led by Deputy Breen.”