A Fianna Fáil politician is to seek a change to her declaration to the Dáil register of interests after she omitted a trip to Washington DC from her statement.
Louth TD Erin McGreehan, then a Senator, travelled to the US capital last September, with meetings at the Pentagon headquarters of the US military, the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters all on the itinerary.
Independent Senator and security analyst Tom Clonan was also on the trip, which was funded by the US State Department.
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He listed the visit in his declaration to the Seanad Register of interests.
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Ms McGreehan, who was elected as a TD in November, declared separate working visits to China and Qatar in her Dáil register of interests statement.
She told The Irish Times her omission of the trip to Washington was a “mistake” that she would “rectify”. She added that it is “not like I was keeping it a secret”.
Ms McGreehan spoke to her local newspaper, the Argus, about the trip before she went.
The article set out the planned meetings in the Pentagon as well as tours of the White House and US Capitol. It quotes Ms McGreehan as saying the visit gave her the opportunity to build on existing relationships with Washington and to develop new ones.
Mr Clonan’s filing to the register of interests indicates that the trip was part of a year of celebrations marking a centenary of diplomatic relations between the United States and the Republic.
He wrote: “I was invited to Washington for defence and intelligence briefings, September 2024. Pentagon, State Department, CIA, Langley, Capitol Hill.”
He posted on X at the time about “fascinating discussions” at the CIA headquarters on misinformation and disinformation and election interference.
Mr Clonan told The Irish Times the briefings “covered a lot of ground” and there was a “frank exchange of views about everything from the war in Ukraine, the threat posed by Vladimir Putin and what that will look like for Europe over the next five to 10 years”.
