Department of Foreign Affairs tight-lipped over deleted Zappone texts

Simon Coveney, the foreign affairs minister, said last week he had scrubbed text conversations with the former children’s minister from his phone because it had been previously ‘hacked’

Simopn Coveney will be questioned for details on the hacking at an Oireachtas committee. His department has described it as a “cyber attack”. Picture: Julien Behal

The Department of Foreign Affairs has declined to say whether Katherine Zappone has been contacted to retrieve text messages deleted by Simon Coveney relating to her controversial appointment as a UN special envoy.

The foreign affairs minister said last week that he had deleted text exchanges with the former children’s minister because his phone had been compromised in a “hacking”.

Answering questions at the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs last Tuesday, Coveney also referred to ...