Sinn Féin should go to the gardaí if they have evidence of a Cabinet leak - Burke

(Above) Minister of State Peter Burke.

Sinn Féin should go to the gardaí if they have any evidence of a Cabinet leak, Minister of State Peter Burke says.

The Mullingar TD was speaking after Sinn Féin TD Matt Carty used Dáil privilege yesterday evening to claim that the Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris leaked the proposed appointment of Katherine Zappone as a special envoy to the UN.

It is a claim that Minister Harris denies. A spokesperson for the minister said that it was “a clear misuse of Dáil privilege” by Deputy Carthy, who made the claim during the debate before the motion of confidence in Minister Simon Coveney. The government's motion was comfortably passed with the support of a number of Independent deputies.

Speaking on Newstalk this morning, Minister Burke said that if Deputy Carthy had evidence of a Dáil leak he should go the gardaí as it is a criminal offence.

“This is the key thing: Deputy Carthy provided no evidence and no detail about what he said or what he alleged.

"One point I would make about that leak was the actual leak was incorrect...It was alleged, through the leak, that it was the Tánaiste that took the memo to Government with Katherine Zappone's name on it.

"That was totally inaccurate. That would suggest a huge possibility of it being from outside a government minister. We don't know where the leak came from. If someone has evidence absolutely they should report it because it is a criminal offence...”

Minister Burke added that he believed that Deputy Carthy abused Dáil privilege by putting it on the record.

"There's no evidence for it - this is about throwing muck at the wall and hoping some of it will stick," Minister Burke said.

During the long debate yesterday evening, Deputy Carthy claimed that “rather than dealing with the debacle Fine Gael were running a sting operation to expose that Simon Harris had leaked the appointment from the Cabinet meeting because that is how business is done. Appointments to public bodies right up to the Supreme Court are decided not by what you know but by who you know”.