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THE FOREIGN AFFAIRS Committee is to ask former minister Katherine Zappone to appear before it to answer questions about the aborted effort by the government to appoint her to a UN role.
The former children’s minister and independent TD was to be appointed to a new role as Ireland’s Special Envoy to the UN for freedom of opinion and expression.
Zappone withdrew from the selection after it emerged that the Taoiseach had not been made aware of the nomination before it was brought to Cabinet on 27 July.
Zappone had also provoked controversy after she had organised an outdoor event at the Merrion Hotel in Dublin in early August that was attended by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has apologised for the manner of the appointment process and himself spoke before the Foreign Affairs Committee after it came to light that he had deleted text messages relating to Zappone’s appointment, which ultimately did not go ahead.
Coveney is set to face a confidence motion in the Dáil later today about the controversy but at today’s meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee it was decided that an invitation be extended to Zappone to answer questions.
A request to extend the invitation to the New York-based Zappone was made at a private meeting of the committee this morning but is believed to have been unopposed.
The committee is also set to write to Secretary General of the Department of the Taoiseach Martin Fraser asking him to attend to answer questions about the timeline of the appointment process.
Committee member John Brady TD of Sinn Féin has said this afternoon that Zappone was “in a unique position to shed light on the controversy” and that she should accept the invitation.
“As a former member of government, and a former senior cabinet minister, Katherine Zappone has a responsibility to the state, to make herself available to answer important questions,” the Wicklow TD said.
“Katherine Zappone needs to give her account and clarify what she actually believes what was being offered by Simon Coveney, as the texts between both of them clearly indicate that the former minister believed that she was being offered a job.”
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I like sums but would ye not put a gap between the answers, kgb)… that’s the end of answer a attached to answer b… just saying
@Pat Corrigan: that irritated me too! esp when you can use letters in maths!
I could answer them all correctly if I wanted to but I don’t want to ruin it for others. I’ll read the answers tomorrow just to make sure ye have em all right.
d, a, c, b, c, b, c, c, d.
And then to Q 10.
Any proper mathematician will use brackets when framing a question. This question, and ones like it, are purposefully made to annoy people. However that said in this case use BODMAS and the answer is 1.
9 – 3 ÷ 1/3 + 1 = 9 – (3 ÷ 1/3) + 1 = 9 – (3*3) + 1 = 9 – 9 + 1 = 1
@Alan Rossiter: But yet…..
….the key bit is the 3 ÷ 1/3.
÷ and / both mean ‘divide by’ and thus carry equal weight in BODMAS.
Therefore 3÷1/3 is the same as 3÷1÷3. As they have equal value in terms of BODMAS then start from the left. The 3 on the left divided by 1 equals 3. That 3 divided by 3 equals 1. Therefore the equation now turns into 9-1+1 = 9.
And this sort of potential inexactness is exactly why no mathematician would ever frame that question that way in the first place!
I’m sorry I started. I was nearly asleep!
@Alan Rossiter: Q1 is c, rather than d.
And as for Q10, your first answer is right, as is the reason why these things always go around Facebook and the like with people fighting over the answer.
But 3 ÷ One Third (using words for clarity) isn’t the same as 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3, as division isn’t associative (i.e., the order you do the operations matters). In fact, because division isn’t associative, 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3 isn’t a well defined mathematical statement, as you get two different answers depending on the order of operations chosen.
@John Nolan: C it is. Damn.
@John Nolan: It’s true that 3 ÷ 1 ÷ 3 is not the same as 3 ÷ 1/3. However the question states the latter, which evaluates to 9. I don’t agree that there is any choice of orders of operation in this case. It’s equivalent to 3 ÷ 0.33333…
@Paraic: Yeah, I read it to myself as 3 divided by a third, which is 9 all day long. The way it’s written is not helpful. I don’t think I’ve used the divided by symbol (can’t even find it on my phone lol) since primary school.
@John Nolan: I was thinking that myself. Spot on with the other ones.
My brain tried but I am sure failed
You lost me at “have”
Q4 3rd of December is also a square number as well as 11/11 and 12/12
@Michael O’Carroll: I missed out on those, ran through it too quickly!
Is 1+1 still 2
C a c b c c is there a mistake in number 7? (Should D be 28?) C B …. and number 10 is ambiguous and a ridiculous assertion in there being one correct answer as you can use varied functions to achieve varied answers
@Declan Edward: 7 is fine. Set up your equation as follows : let x be the age now
x = 4(x-4) – 2(x+4)
x = 4x-16 – 2x -8
x = 2x – 24
24 = x
Check : 4 * 20 – 2 * 28 = 80-56=24.
Meh
Q.4 3rd December is also square as well as 11/11 and 12/12
@Michael O’Carroll: by their nature they have to be squared. It was a trick question.
BABBCBADA19
Jeez…it wouldn’t let me answer any of them…WTF!! Really!! Why do I waste my time?
c a c c c a c c d 1
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