According to RTE reporter David-Davin Power, John O’Donoghue gave a fine speech. The Nine News described the speech as a spirited defence.
I disagree; it was nothing more than an angry, dishonest and embittered rant. O’Donoghue blamed civil servants, the media, the system, administrative errors and the Opposition while heaping praise upon himself.
His pathetic excuse for releasing details of his expenses incurred during his time as Ceann Comhairle on the same day as the referendum is an insult to all intelligent Irish citizens.
Given the massive publicity and media frenzy that had attended the disclosure of my expenses as minister I assumed the same would occur in relation to the costs incurred as Ceann Comhairle.
I believed this would have been a distraction to the Irish public when matters of profound importance to the future of this country were the subject of a referendum.
In my view it was best to have that referendum decided on its individual political merits and that’s why I waited until Friday 2nd October.
I did not attempt to bury the information in other events as some have suggested.
This bizarre excuse is an indication of O’Donoghue’s stupidity. He is, in effect, saying that he buried the information so that voters wouldn’t be distracted while at the same time denying he buried the information.