Fianna Fáil TD Eamon Ó Cuív’s visit to criminal Jonathan Dowdall is a “matter for the deputy”, a spokesperson for the Taoiseach has said.
He also said that he was not aware of Micheál Martin having a conversation with the TD about the visit.
As revealed in the Irish Mirror, Mr Ó Cuív, 72, visited Dowdall in the final weeks of his eight-year sentence for falsely detaining a businessman and waterboarding him in his house.
Read More: Government TD paid personal visit to convicted torturer Jonathan Dowdall in prison
This occurred just months before gardai charged him over his involvement in the Regency Hotel murder of David Byrne. He was sentenced to four years in prison earlier this month.
Mr Ó Cuív accepted that he did visit Dowdall in 2020 but said he would not have visited him if he had known of his links to the Regency Hotel.
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach said that the visit was a “matter for the deputy”.
He said that Mr Ó Cuív’s work with republican prisoners has been “known for probably three decades” and he works with prisoners on rehabilitation.
“Dowdall happened to be on a republican ward at the time,” the spokesman said.
“It is a matter for the deputy. He wasn’t aware of Dowdall’s connection to the Regency murder.”
When asked if the Taoiseach had an issue with Mr Ó Cuív’s visit, the spokesperson repeated that it was a “matter for the deputy”.
He also said that he was not aware of Mr Martin speaking to the Fianna Fáil TD about the meeting.
A spokesperson for Leo Varadkar said that he had not discussed the matter with the Tánaiste.
However, he added that he imagined Dowdall would not be “the sort of individual that a member of Fine Gael would normally be in the practice of visiting”.
A spokesperson for Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, meanwhile, said that he had not spoken to the Climate Minister about the issue.
Mr Ó Cuív told The Mirror that he “wouldn’t have ever visited people involved in gangland” but has been visiting Republican prisoners since 1995.
Asked if in hindsight he now regrets meeting with Dowdall, Mr O’Cuiv said: “I’ll put it to you another way around. There wouldn’t have been any circumstances in light of what came out since, if that was known, there would have been no purpose for my visit.”
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