Coveney insists 'no arrogance' behind Zappone appointment

Simon Coveney has denied he is out of touch or that the Katherine Zappone appointment stemmed from an arrogance among Fine Gael members.

Simon Coveney has denied he is out of touch or that the Katherine Zappone appointment stemmed from an arrogance among Fine Gael members.

Mr Coveney said he will strongly defend his record ahead of a Sinn Féin no-confidence motion in the Dáil tomorrow, adding: "I have very strong support in the party, and hopefully across government too."

"I hope tomorrow evening we'll be able to move on from this and focus on the things that matter to people," he told reporters at the Fine Gael think-in in Trim Co. Meath.

However, the Foreign Affairs Minister said he was “embarrassed” by the Zappone controversy which he admitted has been “a fiasco” since the appointment first came to Cabinet before the summer break.

Mr Coveney said the motivation behind the special envoy appointment was "appropriate" but he should have dealt with the fallout much sooner and with a lot more transparency and detail.

"I think we could have answered questions in a way that wouldn't have turned this issue into an August story that has now moved into September as well. 

"So I regret a lot of those things, and certainly my role in this has contributed to this becoming a political story that it didn't need to become.

"I didn't think it would be controversial. I made a mistake of not ensuring that the Taoiseach was informed before Cabinet and I apologised to the Taoiseach for that."

He said the notion that he is out of touch is a "perception that some people are trying to create" but claimed the conversations had at the party gathering this week and engagement with Fine Gael councillors "would actually suggest the opposite".

"Certainly I can assure you this, there's no arrogance whatsoever about an effort by me as Minister for Foreign Affairs to try to put a special envoy in place to advocate for freedom of expression and LGBTQ rights internationally when many other countries are doing it and the template seems to work."

He added: "There was no arrogance here this was me trying to do my job."