Hanafin admits to helping secure visa for Nepalese

EDUCATION Minister Mary Hanafin has admitted helping controversial poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh to obtain a visa for a Nepalese teenager whom he brought to Ireland.

But Ms Hanafin has stressed Prem Timalsina was 19 at the time of the visa application and, therefore, an “adult man”.

In a move to distance herself from the controversy surrounding the poet, the minister said she was “appalled and shocked by recent reports and revelations in relation to Mr Ó Searcaigh”.