Kenny admits he has failed to measure up on public trust

Taoiseach Enda Kenny admitted he had not measured up to the level of trust placed in him by the Irish people — as his nominee for a Seanad seat withdrew from the race amid uproar.

John McNulty’s decision to ask Oireachtas members not to vote for him in the Upper House by-election contest left Mr Kenny on the defensive in the Dáil.

Under heavy opposition fire, the Taoiseach accepted responsibility for “taking my eye off the situation when I should have been more diligent about seeing it through”.

Mr Kenny told the Dáil the Seanad seat, which only TDs and senators can vote for — and which the Coalition was expected to win — “should not be accepted in those circumstances”.

Explaining why he had decided to take responsibility for the situation, the Taoiseach told TDs: “As president of the party, I let my own standards slip in that regard.”

Mr Kenny said it would be “beneath” Fine Gael to take the Seanad seat in the midst of such controversy.

“I am standing here as Taoiseach who also happens to be president of the Fine Gael Party, and this process is beneath our standards.

“It does not measure up to the integrity and the way in which we have conducted ourselves in these elections. It would not be worthy to win a seat in these circumstances,” Mr Kenny said.

The Taoiseach stressed that “because of the way this has drifted, because I accept that my own standards were let slip, and because my own sense of integrity and the trust given to me here did not measure up in this case, the seat should not be accepted in these circumstances.”

Mr Kenny tried to explain the appointment of Mr McNulty to the board of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma) just six days before he was nominated as Fine Gael’s candidate for a vacancy in the Seanad’s cultural panel by saying that the businessman had expressed an interest in an arts post while his eligibility for the Upper House was probed by the party.

Mr Kenny said he supported Mr McNulty’s decision to effectively withdraw from the election because he did not want him to become the “object of barrage and criticism”.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin rounded on the Taoiseach for his handling of the affair which he insisted had undermined the Oireachtas and its standing with voters.

Referring to the appointment of Mr McNulty to the board of Imma, Mr Martin said: “He undermined a key cultural institution by using it as a political tool and insulting it.”

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said that what had occurred was “an abuse, or possible abuse, of the public appointments process”, as he accused Fine Gael of out-doing Fianna Fáil when it came to political strokes.