Carlow-Kilkenny TD John McGuinness has confirmed that he would have voted with the Government on Wednesday last in the removal of the Triple Lock, the mechanism which has governed the deployment of Irish military personnel on overseas missions since 1960.
However, due to being previously committed to an event held in Kilkenny City last week which honoured the Irish soldiers who served in the 1961 Siege of Jadotville, the Leas Ceann Comhairle wasn’t in the Dáil and had made this known to the Government Chief Whip prior to the vote which led to his being paired for the vote.
Pairing involves an opposition TD abstaining from voting in the event of a Government TD having made their absence from a Dáil vote known beforehand to the Whip.
Speaking to The KCLR Daily yesterday morning during a discussion on the Siege of Jadotville, Deputy McGuinness confirmed that he would have voted the same as everyone else on the coalition benches – if you missed his conversation with our Brian Redmond you can listen back to it in full here;
