TD Daly hasn't said sorry for swearing at me -- photographer

Cormac Murphy

A PRESS photographer who claims he was verbally abused by Clare Daly has still not received an apology from the Dublin TD.

Sasko Lazarov of the Photocall Ireland agency told the Herald he has yet to hear from Ms Daly since an incident outside Leinster House last week.

In the aftermath, agency owner Eamonn Farrell said Sasko deserved an apology but none has been forthcoming.

Sasko said Dublin North East deputy Ms Daly has not phoned him to say sorry.

The incident happened when he was taking photos of Wexford TD Mick Wallace last Thursday as the beleaguered developer was leaving the Dail.

Sasko was checking the pictures when he heard a shout of "f****** pig" directed at him and looked up to see that it was Ms Daly following in her own car, he said.

The "entire street" turned around when the TD shouted at him, he added.

comrades

"Everything happened in five seconds. It was not a big (exchange). It happened in seconds and she was gone," said Sasko, who is from Macedonia and has worked in Ireland for a number of years.

He has never come across a situation like it, he said.

"It happens. I have not seen it (before) but now I have seen it," he told the Herald.

On Thursday evening, Mr Farrell tweeted that Sasko had been "verbally abused by a certain female TD, as he photographed Mick Wallace leaving the Dail".

He later added: "Comrades who roar abuse at photojournalists are the type of friends Mick Wallace could do without. Freedom of the press applies left and right."

Ms Daly, a Socialist TD, did not return a call from the Herald. A staff member at the deputy's office said the TD was not available.

"Clare's not really available today. I might be speaking to her, I might not be," she said.

Lazarov, an award-winning photographer, was taking pictures of Wallace as he left Leinster House.

Mr Wallace had made a statement to the Dail about his failure to pay €1.4m in VAT to the Revenue Commissioners, money that was owed by his construction company.

TDs are required to use appropriate language while speaking in the Dail chamber and issues can be raised with the Dail Committee on Procedure and Privileges.

However, the committee has no role when a deputy uses unparliamentary language outside Leinster House.

comurphy@ herald.ie

Latest Herald