Sinn Féin spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform Mairéad Farrell TD has today slammed the lack of transparency and due process involved in appointing former minister Katherine Zappone to the taxpayer-funded role of UN special envoy for freedom of expression.

Teachta Farrell said:

“This is more Fine Gael cronyism and stinks of stroke politics from an increasingly detached government.

“It is nothing more than Minister Simon Coveney looking after a former government colleague, who was voted out of office at the last General Election.

“The only transparency about this process was the see-through faux outrage from Taoiseach Micheál Martin – posturing about having concerns about the appointment while simultaneously rubber-stamping it.

“This is not the first time this government has made a total mockery of the appointment procedures. We have seen the jobs for the boys mentality before with the appointments of Robert Watt and Séamus Woulfe.

“This government is only a year old but already people are truly tired of this arrogant and self-entitled horse-trading between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael.

“The level of entitlement within the ranks of Fine Gael was further underlined by one TD stating that we should not ‘make a mountain out of a molehill’ of Ms Zappone’s appointment as it was only ‘a €13,000 or €15,000 role’.

“She should try telling that to carers and pensioners across the state earning less than that. It is staggering that any public representative could be so completely detached from the challenges and realities being faced by people.”