Government minister Robert Troy has called on the President to provide further clarification on how a controversial letter written by his wife ended up on the official presidential website.
Mr Troy said it would be “helpful” if we heard more from the President’s office in Áras an Uachtaráin.
And another government senator, Fianna Fáil’s Erin McGeehan, has also spoken out against the posting of the letter on the site, upping the ante by saying the President may have to “consider his position” over the controversy.
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Sabina Coyne Higgins has caused a political summer storm after she wrote a letter, in her personal capacity to the Irish Times last week.
In the letter calling for peace in Ukraine she called on both sides to cease hostilities and get into talks.
She said that the war would continue “until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations.”
The letter was subsequently posted to the official presidential website last Friday morning, before being taken down some time later.
The Russian ambassador to Ireland, Yury Filatov, praised the letter and critics then rowed in to slam the President’s wife for her apparent appeasement of the Russians.
‘Lettergate’ has become one of the major political controversies of the summer and is refusing to go away after the intervention of a junior government minister.
Robert Troy has called for clarification on how the controversial letter made its way onto the presidential website.
And he criticised the President saying it was “worrying” that the letter had made its way onto the official website.
Mr Troy said: “Firstly, Sabina Higgins is a private citizen, she’s entitled to her own opinion, and to be fair to the President over the weekend, he clarified his utter condemnation of the invasion.
“And while Ms Higgins obviously wrote the letter, I take it with good intentions, it is a worry that the Russian ambassador welcomed the intervention that she made.
“And it is a worry that that letter ended up on the official website of the Áras and I think it would be helpful if the Áras could clarify how it ended up on their official website.”
Fianna Fáil’s Senator McGeehan went further when she said on Twitter: “An Uachtaráin disrespected our nation & the Office of the Presidency when he published his wife’s letter- At least he needs to apologise and if he doesn’t he should most definitely consider his position."
The Office of the President has been contacted for comment.
But over the weekend a spokesperson for President Higgins said that he “has repeatedly condemned what he has described as the illegal, immoral and unjustifiable Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“He has called for an immediate Russian withdrawal and an end to the violence."
On Tuesday evening, Sabina Higgins released a further statement on the matter, explaining why the letter was published to the President.ie website and subsequently taken down.
“For the last 11 years since coming to Áras an Uachtaráin as the wife of the President, I have continued my long standing interests on a number of important issues. Since 2014, I have had a dedicated section on the President.ie website," she explained.
"This section contains details of activities I have been undertaking including speeches and work towards the implementation of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, health issues, breastfeeding, issues affecting the Traveller Community, human rights, supporting the arts and a range of other issues.
"Last week I had been asked about my letter to the Irish Times, which I had written in a personal capacity, by a number of people who had missed it, and had not been able to access it online. I therefore put it on my dedicated section of the website as I have done for the last number of years. Having put my letter up, I subsequently took it down when I saw it being presented as not being from myself, but from the general President.ie website.
"I have from its outset strongly condemned the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and I cannot be but dismayed that people would find anything unacceptable in a plea for peace and negotiations when the future of humanity is threatened by war, global warming and famine."
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