Finance minister rejects claim that Woulfe appointment was part of Government deal
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The Finance Minister has strongly denied the appointment of Seamus Woulfe to the Supreme Court was part of Government formation horse-trading.
Defending the Justice Minister Helen McEntee, who will come before the Dáil on the issue next week, Paschal Donohoe insisted the correct procedures were followed in the selection of the judge.
Asked directly if appointment formed part of discussions between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, Mr Donohoe said: "The process in relation to this was followed, and it never at any point appeared in the negotiations to form a Government."
He added that he did not take part in "any conversations" on the matter, even informally, with Fianna Fáil during coalition talks.
Mr Donohoe said there had been "good reasons", including constitutional issues, around why it had taken so long for Ms McEntee to agree to take Dáil questions on the appointment.
The opposition has been calling on Ms McEntee to come into the chamber of the Dáil to answer questions, Mr Donohoe said: "that is what she's now doing".
He said the Taoiseach and Tánaiste had taken questions on the matter each day this week and added that Ms McEntee would appear before the Dáil next week "to explain the procedure, and to explain how she acted in line with the procedures".
"We are acting in accordance with the obligations we have both to the Oireachtas and the need to be careful in relation to how very important appointments," Mr Donohoe said.
"For anybody who participates in regular ministerial questions like I do, the concept that they're in any way lacking in rigour, or lacking in the ability to hold ministers to account doesn't stand up to the reality of doing them."
He said he knew that the appointment was being made, but was not made aware of the name being put forward ahead of Cabinet "which I wouldn't expect to happen".
"It is up to the Minister to determine who is the appropriate person. The reason for that is that when appointments like this are made if we get into a debate about individual names and individual candidates in Cabinet it undermines the process itself and indeed could act as a deterrent for people putting their names forward for roles like this."
Meanwhile, Mr Donohoe said Christmas is "so important" from both a family, wellbeing and faith point of view and would be factored into the Government's decision on Covid restrictions.
He said every single death from Coivid-19 is one too many, however, he said there are other figures that need to be taken into consideration.
"From an economic point, if you talk to for example somebody who's running a business, somebody who is running a restaurant, they do want certainty beyond December 25."
Mr Donohoe said the numbers in hospital and ICU with the virus are "massively down" and those statistics will provide "indicators" to help the Government make a decision on easing restrictions next week.
"If you look at all of the indicators of where we were a few weeks ago, we are now in a better place, just not in as good a place as we would have hoped to be."
Mr Donohoe added: "We will prevail, we will get through this disease."