Mary Harney, Defended French villa holiday
The Tánaiste Mary Harney has denied she broke any Oireachtas rules on accepting gifts by staying at a French villa as a guest of the businessman Ulick McEvaddy. The Labour Party leader Ruairí Quinn said yesterday that Ms Harney and the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, had broken rules on accepting gifts and had compromised themselves by staying at the Provence villa owned by Mr Evaddy's company.
The Taoiseach dismissed the claim and said the two ministers would not be absenting themselves from any Cabinet discussions about Mr Evaddy's application to build a second terminal at Dublin airport, or the question of Government support for McEvaddy's fight against new EU rules on aircraft engine noise.
Speaking on Morning Ireland this morning, Mary Harney said the McEvaddy family had been her friends since before she became a minister. She added that the Oireachtas guidelines specifically did not rule out accepting hospitality from friends or family. She insisted that she did nothing wrong.
