Minister for Agriculture attends 81-person golf event in breach of health guidelines

Hawthorn Tree wrote: »

Great post/read.

The Irish Examiner is a fine newspaper.

On Thursday, the Irish Examiner broke the story of the Oireachtas golf society outing that was in complete breach of public health guidelines. Aoife-Grace Moore and Paul Hosford detailed the attendance at a function of 80 people, including senior politicians, a supreme court judge, an EU commissioner, and the head of the Irish Banking Federation.

Resignations rightly followed, but basic questions arise about how so many with leadership roles thought they were above and beyond the guidelines that apply to everybody else.

Did any among them for a second wonder how it might look when, not if, this got into the public domain? Surely such a collection of individuals, with their respective experience, knew that it would not remain inside the walls of the function room where they gathered?

Did any of them consider the funerals, weddings, children’s parties, family gatherings that have been foregone in order to comply with guidelines we have been told must be observed?

Or, to quote a tweet from the former health minister Simon Harris: “A right kick in the gut & middle finger to everyone in our country who has worked so hard & sacrificed so much, to everyone who has lost a loved one or been sick with Covid-19, to every frontline worker and to every responsible business owner who have suffered so much. Shameful.”

Except Mr Harris wasn’t referencing the golf gathering there, but a group of relatively young punters who had a few moments of madness in the Berlin D2 venue in Dublin last weekend. Such strong words tend to be reserved for others than those who aspire to lead.

Then we have the antics of another leader, Leo Varadkar. The farrago over mixed messaging is reported to have some of its origins in divisions in the Cabinet, opened up by Mr Varadkar.

Since the formation of the Government, the Fine Gael leader has given the impression that he doesn’t see his current role as subservient to that of the Taoiseach. He has repeatedly taken positions that appear designed to undermine Micheál Martin — a little dig here, a pre-emptive press briefing there.

Mr Varadkar appears to be gaming for a political future where his party capitalises on a Fianna Fáil slide towards irrelevancy.

That’s standard fare in politics as usual, but we were told that the current Government was put together in the national interest, in order to guide the country through the dark valley of the pandemic. And this is Mr Varadkar’s version of responsible leadership in a time of crisis?

Not that the Taoiseach did anything to enhance his own reputation this week.

Ultimately, the confusion around new guidelines issued on Tuesday are his responsibility.

For whatever reason — his persona, the string of controversies, rustiness, a deficit of confidence — he has not been able to convey the impression that he is in charge, that he is leading, that he knows what is required.