Connolly’s e-mails querying vetting of person convicted by the Special Criminal Court must be published – McEntee

Catherine Connolly must publish the e-mails where she queried the vetting of a person previously convicted of firearms offences before the Special Criminal Court whom the TD signed into Leinster House for six months – against the rules of access into the building.

Fine Gael Deputy Leader Helen McEntee said Deputy Connolly rightly seeks accountability and transparency as a public representative and the public should be afforded the same opportunity on this issue.

On ‘The Pat Kenny Show’ on Newstalk this morning, Deputy Connolly said: ‘I sent an email internally in March to say what was the delay in relation to this.’

On October 2nd last, Deputy Connolly told RTÉ Radio 1’s ‘Today with Claire Byrne’: ‘I checked, I have emails that asked where is the process at, it is going on for a very long time.’ On the same show, the Presidential candidate also described the vetting process of the women convicted in the Special Criminal Court as ‘very inconvenient’.

Minister McEntee said the electorate needs to see what is in these e-mails.

“Someone who wants to become our President but has admitted to signing a serious criminal into our national parliament for half a year has to release all details on this to enable the public have all relevant information.

“What is in the e-mails?

“What exact dates was this person signed in for six months with no garda clearance,” Deputy McEntee said.

The Education Minister also said the Connolly campaign should provide a full breakdown of her €3,700 taxpayers’ funded trip to Syria to meet supporters of the vile dictator Bashar al-Assad in 2018.

At her campaign launch earlier this year on July 16^th, Catherine Connolly was asked: ‘Why did you go there? And who funded that trip?’ She immediately replied: ‘I funded that trip’ and made no reference to public funds being used.

The Irish Times revealed last week Deputy Connolly used €3,700 from a taxpayer funded Parliamentary Activities Allowance for the trip where they met Fares al-Shehabi – a supporter of dictator Bashar al-Assad – who was placed under European Union sanctions.

“The electorate is entitled to a full breakdown of what the finance was used for in relation to this trip to a country under a dictator’s regime,” Minister McEntee said.