There are mounting calls for the officials that broke COVID-19 regulations by attending an Oireachtas Golf Society dinner this week to resign.
Opposition parties have called for the Dáil to be recalled over the scandal which saw 80 people, including a Government minister, a Supreme Court Judge and an EU Commissioner, attending the event in County Galway.
I have spoken with the Taoiseach. He has refused my request to recall the Dail. He is wrong. The government is increasingly chaotic, confused, with no direction. They must be held to account.
— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) August 21, 2020
The Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary yesterday resigned his position over the incident and was followed by Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer who stepped down as Leas-Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly says EU Commissioner Phil Hogan and Supreme Court Justice Séamus Woulfe must now follow suit.
“The public are so angry. They feel so let down. They feel that basically the wool has been pulled over their eyes,” he said. “That some people have an entitlement to feel and to act in a way that is totally different to everybody else.
“Well they don’t. They don’t have an entitlement to act differently. We are all supposedly in this together and that fell apart in the last 48 hours.
“I believe the Dáil needs to be recalled because of this omni-shambles.”
Dear @vonderleyen
Do the right thing. pic.twitter.com/jYKcwaOifj— Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (@lukeming) August 21, 2020
He said Commissioner Hogan must now be forced out of his role.
“If Micheál Martin feels that Dara Calleary’s position is untenable – which it was – then Phil Hogan’s position is equally untenable,” he said.
“Nobody is too big to fall and we have to say it out straight that the commissioner now will have to be moved, will have to be changed, and, if the Commission won’t do it, then the Taoiseach of Ireland will have to come out and say, quite publicly, we do not have confidence in him.”
Dear @vonderleyen
Do the right thing. pic.twitter.com/jYKcwaOifj— Luke 'Ming' Flanagan (@lukeming) August 21, 2020
Meanwhile, Midlands North-West MEP Luke 'Ming' Flanagan has written to the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen calling for Commissioner Hogan to be fired.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett has warned that Judge Woulfe would have had a clear understanding of COVID-19 guidelines through both his current position and his former position as Attorney General of the previous Government.
He said he now must stand aside.
Commissioner Hogan and Judge Woulfe have both apologised for attending but insisted they were assured the dinner was not in breach of Government guidelines.
