The Prime Minister of Ireland is going to call on Parliament to discuss a dinner that violated the restrictions imposed against the pandemic and asked the European Commissioner for Trade, Irish Phil Hogan, to consider the resignation.
Executive leader Michael Martin and coalition partners, Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar and Minister Eamon Ryan, “have reached an agreement for Parliament to be convened,” a government spokesman said on Sunday, quoted by the France-Presse news agency (AFP).
At stake is a political scandal that has already led to the resignation of the Irish Minister of Agriculture on Friday, after his presence at a dinner with more than 80 people, offered by the parliament’s golf club, which violated the restrictions, was disclosed. linked to covid-19.
Dara Calleary, in office just a month ago, was at the party held on Thursday at a hotel with many other political figures, as was the case with European Commissioner for Trade, Phil Hogan.
Elected to the Irish Parliament from 1987 to 2014 and Minister of the Environment between 2011 and 2014, Hogan admitted having participated in the event, while guaranteeing that he believed “that the organizers and the hotel in question […] would comply with government recommendations “to prevent the spread of covid-19.
The prime minister and deputy prime minister, leader of Fine Gael, the party for which Phil Hogan was a deputy, said on Saturday that they “spoke to Commissioner Hogan” and asked him “to assume his responsibilities”. A spokesman for the European commissioner told Irish television channel RTE that the commissioner “would consider” the request.
Irish authorities decided on Tuesday to tighten restrictions on people’s meetings to cope with an increase in the number of people infected with the new coronavirus.
According to the new rules, meetings in closed spaces can only bring together a maximum of six people (until Tuesday there were 50) and in open spaces a maximum of 15 (there were 200), with the exception of religious services, such as masses or weddings.
“Across the country, the population has made sacrifices to comply with rules”
According to the Irish Examiner, during the parliament golf club dinner guests were divided into two rooms with fewer than 50 people, but at least 10 were left at each table. In addition, the division between the two rooms was removed during the speeches, the Irish Times added.
In a statement sent a day later to the press, the Irish Prime Minister considered that the dinner should not have taken place.
“Across the country, the population has made very difficult personal sacrifices in family life and professional activities to comply with the rules related to covid-19”, recalled the prime minister, stressing that the event contradicted “the decisions announced on Tuesday by the Government “.
On August 15, the president of the agency responsible for promoting tourism in Ireland, Catherine Martin, resigned after it was revealed that she went on vacation to Italy, despite calls for trips to be made only within the country.
Ireland has so far recorded 1,776 deaths due to covid-19 and more than 27,000 confirmed cases.
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