Coveney says he did not offer Zappone envoy role months before official appointment

Minister apologises for ‘sloppiness’ of his communications in second Oireachtas hearing over controversial UN special envoy appointment

Simon Coveney is appearing in front of the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee to discuss the controversy over the appointment of Katherine Zappone to a UN special envoy role

Simon Coveney, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has insisted he did not formally offer Katherine Zappone a special envoy position months before she was officially appointed to the role.

Coveney this morning apologised for the “sloppiness” of his communication over recent weeks, as well as for the “political embarrassment” caused by the Zappone affair, at a hearing in front of the Oireachtas committee on foreign affairs.

But in his second appearance at the committee in ...