SEVEN MONTHS OF TEXTS, CALLS AND MEETINGS BEFORE SHE WITHDRAWS
SUMMER 2020
After losing her seat in the general election and relocating to New York, former Children’s Minister Katherine Zappone contacts Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney to say she ‘would be available to help in any way’ to work for Ireland at the UN.
FEBRUARY 2021
Mr Coveney and Ms Zappone have another chat and she tells him she is now working ‘within the United Nations system’. The Fine Gael TD will later insist Ms Zappone was not lobbying for a job.
FEBRUARY 24:
Mr Coveney asks the then head of his department, Niall Burgess, if ‘Katherine Zappone could be of any use to our team in New York’.
FEBRUARY 25:
Leading economist, UN adviser and Columbia University Professor Jeffrey Sachs emails Irish-born US diplomat Samantha Power to congratulate her on her appointment as head of USAid. He says Katherine Zappone is a ‘good friend’ who is ‘eager to contact you to see if she might help USAid in some way’ and adds that Ms Zappone would ‘love to get engaged in the USG on global diplomacy’.
MARCH 4, 2021
Ms Zappone texts Mr Coveney to thank him ‘so, so much for offering me this incredible opportunity’, adding ‘It will be such a privilege and I will be so proud to serve Ireland again.’
MARCH 23:
The political director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Sonja Hyland, asks officials to organise a meeting to discuss ‘a possible envoy in the human rights space’.
APRIL 6 2021
Foreign Affairs officials prepare a first draft of a job description for Ms Zappone’s new position.
APRIL 9:
Ms Zappone texts Mr Coveney to say: ‘Have heard in the background that department may be ready to discuss the proposals with you for my work?’
MAY 6, 2021
Ms Zappone texts Mr Coveney for an update, asking: ‘Any news yet? You had mentioned June as start time.’
On the same day, Ireland’s ambassador to the UN tells the then secretary-general at the Department of Foreign Affairs that Ms Zappone has been in touch, adding: ‘She asked me what had happened to her nomination as LTGTBQ [sic] envoy. She said there is radio silence from the minister.’
JULY 16, 2021
Ms Zappone texts Tánaiste Leo Varadkar asking why Mr Coveney has not been in contact about her new job. ‘Have you heard anything?’ she asks. The Fine Gael leader replies he has not.
JULY 19:
Mr Coveney texts Mr Varadkar to say the most senior civil servant at his department will be meeting with Ms Zappone to ‘finalise a 12-month contract to be an Irish Government Special Envoy for Freedom of Expression and Human Rights’.
JULY 21:
Ms Zappone hosts a ‘Farewell to Ireland’ party in the gardens of Dublin’s five-star Merrion Hotel. The 50 guests include Mr Varadkar and highranking civil servants.
JULY 27:
Mr Coveney tells a Cabinet meeting about Ms Zappone’s appointment. It is the first time Taoiseach Micheál Martin is made aware of it, but the appointment is approved.
Controversy erupts as opposition politicians make accusations of cronyism because the job was never advertised. Questions are also raised as to whether Ms Zappone’s farewell party in the Merrion Hotel breached Covid guidelines.
AUGUST 4, 2021
Ms Zappone announces she will not accept the UN job after all, saying in a statement ‘it is clear that criticism of the appointment process has impacted the legitimacy of the role itself’.