Tánaiste defends Burton’s meeting with media tycoon Denis O’Brien

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has defended his deputy leader Joan Burton’s encounter with media tycoon Denis O’Brien and suggested public representatives could not go around “covered in a cloak” when meeting people.

The Labour leader was responding to revelations about ministerial meetings and further fallout from the Moriarty Tribunal and said the situation was getting “ridiculous”.

The Irish Examiner revealed this week that Ms Burton had a brief encounter with Mr O’Brien in the New York Stock Exchange in March. She later suggested that Government figures should not interact with individuals criticised in the Moriarty report. But Mr Gilmore said that ministers could not control who they encountered.