Misleading Survivors And The Dáil

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Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone and former UN Special Rapporteur Pablo de Greiff

“I have previously relayed my commitment to the House to inviting the UN special rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence, Mr. Pablo de Greiff, to come to Ireland.

I believe he can assist us in our endeavours to establish the truth and advise us on how best to move forward and deal with this part of our history.

Arrangements are at an advanced stage and I expect an invitation to be issued to Mr. de Greiff in the coming days.”

Minister for Children Katherine Zappone, February 13, 2019.

This afternoon…

Via The Coalition of Mother And Baby home Survivors (CMABS):

An Administrative Officer in the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) has flatly contradicted statements made by Minister Katherine Zappone in the Dáil that arrangements to invite the UN Special Rapporteur for the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantee of non-recurrence to Ireland, were at an “advanced stage” and later that she was “… working with my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to arrange this invitation.”

In response to a Freedom of Information request, Liam Doolan of the Mother and Baby homes investigation, replied that:

“…no communication was made between the actors listed [Katherine Zappone and the Dept of CYA] and Mr. Pablo de Greiff”.

Doolan’s letter completely undermines the clear statement that Minister Zappone made in the Dáil on February 13,  2018

The Freedom of Information request also revealed that no invitation was ever issued to Pablo de Greiff despite Minister Zappone making repeated references to such an invitation for several months from as early as the beginning of June 2017 until as late as February 13, 2018. On 24.Jan.2018, Minister Zappone in a written answer in the Dáil informed Denise Mitchell TD that:

“…In addition, the Government has agreed to invite Mr. Pablo de Greiff, UN Special Rapporteur, to assist Ireland in our response to issues related to former Mother and Baby homes and I am working with my colleague the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to arrange this invitation”

Previously: Missing A ‘Defining Moment’

Earlier: DNA Tests And Tuam [Updated]

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15 thoughts on “Misleading Survivors And The Dáil

  1. Mr.Fart

    she’s really taken on the FG ethos of doing no work and lying. She won’t be an Independent for long, varadkar has an eye for untalent like that and will invite her to join his party. she really has excelled at sucking.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Zappone, if you remember, helped Kenny get the position of Taoiseach and was duly rewarded. Of course, she already had form supporting FG on the Irish Water bill in the seanad. And of course managed to find a slightly longer way to work, resulting in an extra €20k per annum into her pocket.
      She’s a disgrace, and a liar.

      1. Steph Pinker

        … to quote a wise man: The only form of lying that is absolutely beyond reproach is lying for its own sake.

      2. Pip

        It’s the dishonesty of the extra 20k that does it for me every time.
        Nothing to do with politics. Just wrong.

  2. eoin

    “no communication was made between the actors listed and the [UN rapporteur]”

    “actor”?

    That’s Katherine Zappone alright.

  3. kellyma

    Or maybe she is just an eejit rather than an outright manipulator?
    Communications were made with the relevant office just not with mr Greiff, which seems like the sensible thing to do given he was leaving the post. It seems to me like a case of her civil servants telling her they were in contact with the office which was then Mr. Salvioli and she wasnt able to get her head around the piece of info that it was a different person… like continuing to refer to eir as telecom eireann. Which at a minimum, doesn’t say much for her grey matter…. but might not necessarily mean she is a complete machiavellian human being.

    1. postmanpat

      In fairness you don’t have to be extraordinarily Machiavellian to get away with much in this country. You just have to keep lying and hope the story blows over. And its solved itself now as there was no mention about this on the loss making RTE news last night when they reported on her wanting that report about a report and how she would do something something about getting a report? ..footage of Zappone waffling in that weird north American accent. and blinking .. blah blah .? Shot on that black metal gate in Tuam with a crucifix on it…… the end. so the story has blown over, and 90% of the bored and too busy to really care public just accepts it . If I was a lower level Civil Servant in any way connected to this lying waste of oxygen , id be keeping detailed record of my activities and keeping a diary of verbal orders coming from some grinning snake or a PO or HEO who would burn you to keep their phony jobs.

  4. Cian

    My reading of the request is that they are looking for any communication to/from any of the parties related to the visit, this would include Minster –> advisor. It would also include Minister –>anyone.

    My reading of the response is that they only looked for communication between any of the parties listed directly with Pablo de Greiff. This would exclude Minster –> advisor, or DCYA –> DFA.

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