Coveney has 'full confidence' in Defence Forces boss after Russian ambassador meeting

Mr Coveney had said that he was “surprised, to put it mildly” at Lieutenant General Seán Clancy’s meeting with Yury Filatov

Sinn Féin's Foreign Affairs spokesperson John Brady told the Dáil the the comments of the the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney (pictured) showed "poor judgement". File photo

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney has told the Dáil he has "no hesitation" in supporting the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces after he met with the Russian ambassador.

Last night, Mr Coveney told a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party that he was “surprised, to put it mildly” at Lieutenant General Seán Clancy’s meeting with Yury Filatov. The meeting heard that Lieutenant General Clancy said the photo-op was part of a round of engagements with diplomats.

The meeting came amid reports that Russian vessels en route to Irish waters are carrying anti-ship missiles and anti-submarine systems for exercises off the Cork coast. The exercise is seen as a show of force by Russia, proving to Europe that its military is capable of conducting operations on its western sea borders.

Mr Coveney broke from answering Dáil questions to "make a brief comment to address media reports" about Lieutenant General Clancy's meeting.

He told the Dáil: “I have absolutely no hesitation in expressing my full support and confidence in the Chief of Staff and in his judgment.

“The chief is holding a number of pro-forma meetings at the moment with members of diplomatic corps, as a new chief of staff would be expected to do and those meetings have been set up over many weeks,” he said.

“What I commented on last night, related in response to a question related to the timing of the meeting with the Russian ambassador, and the subsequent tweet drawing attention to it.

On January 21 the Ambassador of #Russia to #Ireland Y.Filatov met with the Member of the Chief of Defence Staff of Ireland S.Clancy. Parties discussed the issues of 🇷🇺🇮🇪 relations and international agenda, as well as prospects of contacts between armed forces of two countries. pic.twitter.com/lR9GuwBFjG

— Russia in Ireland (@Rus_Emb_Ireland) January 21, 2022

“I have, as you would expect, been fully briefed by the chief of staff, I spoke to him again last night.

“I have absolutely no reservations or questions about his actions and I just want to put that on the record because I don’t think it’s welcome that the Chief of Staff has been brought into public commentary and political debate and I recognise that I’ve made a contribution to allowing that to happen and I would certainly like to correct that this morning.”

Sinn Féin's Foreign Affairs spokesperson John Brady told the Dáil the Minister's comments showed "poor judgement".

"The newly-appointed Chief of Staff has a very difficult task at hand. We have an organisation that is on its knees. The Minister's comments last night showed poor judgment. They completely undermined the Chief of Staff and the difficult role and task he has at hand. It showed extremely poor judgment on the Minister's behalf."