Leo: ‘I only spent a minute’ on note
TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar insisted he only spent a minute writing the fan-mail that made international headlines this week – after the controversial letter he sent to pop queen Kylie Minogue on official headed notepaper was published in the Irish Mail on Sunday.
His comments came after former attorney general Michael McDowell suggested on Friday night’s Late Late Show that the letter showed that Mr Varadkar was a ‘camera slut’.
When contacted yesterday over his comments, Mr McDowell did not respond.
Mr Varadkar laughed off the suggestion: ‘Yeah well I didn’t hear about that [McDowell’s comments] until a minute ago when Simon [Harris] told me about it (laughs)... This is a letter that I spent a minute writing six months ago. If people think it’s a big story, that’s more of a reflection on them.’
Meanwhile, the MoS has launched an appeal with the Information Commissioner over attempts by the Department of the Taoiseach to prevent the release of the letter.
The MoS was finally able to access the letter, but only after the Taoiseach consented to its release, having twice been refused, initially through a Freedom of Information Act request and then a subsequent appeal.
Ken Foxe, director of transparency group Right to Know, hit out at the Taoiseach’s department for claiming the letter was personal.
He said: ‘A note sent from the Taoiseach, on Departmental notepaper, and from his office in Government Buildings cannot be personal information.’
Earlier this week, the High Court overturned a judgement in favour of the Information Commissioner.
The judge in the UCC versus Information Commissioner case relied on a previous court of appeal decision, Enet versus Gavin Sheridan, which found ‘where a record comes within the terms of one of the statutory exemptions, then no additional justification for non-disclosure is required to be demonstrated’.