Bertie Ahern, Mr O'Donoghue "acted correctly"
Bobby Molloy, "Did not make representations on behalf of Patrick Naughton"
The woman whose letters to a High Court judge led to the resignation of Bobby Molloy as Minister of State has apologised for the confusion and upset that they caused. Anne Naughton said that she never intended to destroy anybody's career or damage anyone's reputation.
In a statement to RTÉ News this evening, Ms Naughton said that her letters to the judge contained simple questions about her brother's trial and were never intended to ask for any special favours or attention. She said that she only contacted a TD when she had no other option, after she had failed to get answers elsewhere.
This comes as the Taoiseach earlier described Opposition calls for the Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, to resign as "rubbish". The calls followed the Minister's disclosure yesterday that 15 letters about the Naughton rape case were exchanged between himself and Junior Minister Bobby Molloy, who resigned over the matter.
Speaking in Sligo, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said that Minister O'Donoghue had acted correctly and to the letter of the law. He also said that as far as he and the Minister were aware, there were no further letters; he added, however, that if there were, they would be published.
The Minister for Justice has insisted that he never tried to deceive the public about the extent of Mr Molloy's involvement. John O'Donoghue said that the 15 letters exchanged between his department and the former minister were discovered only after the first revelations of the affair earlier this week.
On RTÉ Radio, Mr O'Donoghue was asked if he remembered the Naughton case. He said that he neither remembered the subject, nor had any recollection of the matter.
He said that the first he heard of it was when Judge O'Sullivan said that there was a contact from an official in the Department of Justice. He said that he immediately had an investigation to see if anything untoward had happened.
He said that, as it transpired, the official in the Department of Justice who contacted the judge did not know what then Minister Molloy's office wished to speak to the judge about.
Bobby Molloy this morning defended his role in the affair that led to his resignation on Tuesday. Speaking on RTÉ Radio, Mr Molloy said that he had not been making representations on behalf of the rapist Patrick Naughton when he contacted the Department of Justice on behalf of Naughton's sister, Anne.
The Labour Party has again called for all the correspondence in Naughton case to be published. Deputy leader Brendan Howlin said that Mr O'Donoghue's own statement acknowledged that it would not be right to publish certain material to do with the merits of the case. Mr Howlin said this shows that the Minister for Justice clearly meant that he had received such correspondence.
Mr Howlin said it was only reasonable to infer that these matters were contained in letters from Mr Molloy. Labour's Deputy Leader said the public was entitled to know how many other letters had been withheld, and whether there was a record of phone contacts on the matter.
