Noonan clarifies ‘mucking around’

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has insisted his controversial “mucking around” quotes were targeted at Sinn Féin and not investigative journalists.

“It wasn’t a comment about the media,” said Mr Noonan. “I had been asked about comments by Sinn Féin and I had written to all the banks and told them to protect all the tapes they have in their possession because they are potentially evidence that the gardaí and the DPP might seek.

“I wasn’t agreeing with the Sinn Féin suggestion that some kind of internal inquiry should be conducted by banking officials and by civil servants, so I said protect all the evidence and don’t do anything that might contaminate it in any way whatsoever. But I wasn’t referring to the media, what the media do is the media’s business and there is a free press in the country,” he said.