Former minister of state Mr Bobby Molloy apologised in the Dail yesterday to the rape victim and to the judge in the case which led to his resignation.

He asked that they would accept his word "that I never, at any time, intended to affect the outcome of the prosecution of Patrick Naughton, either as to verdict or to sentence".

Apologising to the victim, he was deeply sorry that his actions "may have compounded her pain by bringing greater publicity and public controversy to the trial and sentence of her father".

He said that as a father himself, he would "never, ever seek to prevent the conviction or imprisonment of a person who had savagely defiled his own child and I never took any steps of any kind with the intention of doing so".

Retiring after 37 years in the Dáil, he said there was "nothing sinister or dishonest" in his actions. He resigned because a "human error of judgment" on his part might have given the public the impression "that I had secretly tried to influence a judge".

Two phonecalls to the judge "created in his mind a disturbing impression that an attempt was being made to make improper contact with him". He deeply regretted that "a judge for whom I have the highest respect should have been put in this position".

In a sombre last address to the House, he said resignation "is a heavy price to pay for a public representative with 37 years service. Resignation with dishonour would, however, be too high a price, because I know that I have acted at all times in good faith."

His motives were "free from any conspiracy, bad faith or underhand motives". The events in the controversy "were innocent of the darker explanations which some people have offered for them".

He asked the Dáil to accept he had "never tried to have contact made with the judge himself and would never have dreamed of initiating such contact and that I would have stopped it if I thought it was happening".

He had resigned "an office which I was honoured to hold, precisely because I know that by failing to do so, I would have damaged public confidence in all that I hold dear - public confidence in decent standards in public life, in the rule of law, in impartial justice, and in the separation of powers".

He had spent 37 years trying to live up to "basic standards of decency and honesty" which constituents were entitled to accept. "Like everyone else, I have made errors of judgment. But I would ask you to accept that the circumstances which led to my resignation did not arise from any conscious departure from those standards."

Mr Molloy asked that Mr Justice Philip O'Sullivan would accept his word that "the contact made with him was unintended and accidental and that no underhand motive lay behind it".

His motive was to "help a constituent who was distressed and was seeking information regarding judicial procedures rather than to pretend to her that I could use my office to affect the outcome of her brother's case".

Mr Molloy had written a number of letters to the Minister for Justice on behalf of Ms Anne Naughton, whose brother Patrick was convicted for the rape and buggery of his daughter. An official in the Mr Molloy's office also telephoned the judge in the case.

In his personal speech he said: "I am making this statement to this House in the hope and belief that my word will be taken that these events are free from any conspiracy, bad faith, or underhand motives".

He was deeply sorry that a course of action he started with no wrong motive, resulted in the judge believing that a "deliberate attempt had been made to influence or affect him in the discharge of his constitutional judicial function".

He wished to "make it quite clear that I never requested my staff member to ring the judge directly, or to speak to the judge, or to seek the judge's home number, as was suggested in newspaper reports of the judge's initial comments".

When the conversation with the judge was reported to him, "I advised the official verbally and recorded on her note of her conversation with the judge: 'never, ever approach a judge in any case. He's directly involved'."

Mr Molloy also defended the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, and officials in the Department of Justice and in his own office. Mr O'Donoghue's conduct in this matter, "was and is above approach". He and his officials "at all times acted in good faith and entirely properly".

He rejected accusations that he had "persistently" and "tenaciously" sought to secure the release of Patrick Naughten over many months. "I did not do so ." The record showed "I never made any such attempt or request in any shape or form.

"Nor did I ever present to Ms Anne Naughton that I was doing so."