Author Archives: Bodger

From top: Mick Barry, Paul Reid, Dr Colm Henry and Michael McNamara

This morning.

Special Committee on Covid-19 Response.

Solidarity/People Before Profit TD Mick Barry raised Phil Hogan and his Golfgate movements with the expert panel…

Mick Barry: “I have some questions for Mr [Paul] Reid. I do want to ask some questions about the situation with schools but before I do, I’m going to ask some questions about quarantine? The European Commissioner travelled to this state from a non-green list country. He has justified breaking the 14-day quarantine on the grounds of having had a negative Covid test. Now I think the answer to this question is probably fairly obvious but I think it’s important that we hear from the chief of the HSE. So the question is: Did he break HSE guidelines by doing so?”

Paul Reid, CEO HSE: “Deputy just to come back very briefly, I might ask my colleague Dr Colm Henry just on the specific guidelines. Just to say, obviously, he’s a public servant. I’m not going to encroach into the area of any kind of political comment. What I will say is our guidelines and guidance are very clear both on the HSE site and indeed there is more in-depth guidance on the HPSC site – that would be the go-to site in terms of information both in terms of travel and both in terms of testing and testing negative and it’s very clear on the site. So I just ask Dr Henry to clarify it.”

Dr Colm Henry, Chief Clinical Officer, HSE: “Thank you, deputy, the advice… is clear in this regard. People coming to Ireland from non-green list countries restrict their movements for 14 days, irrespective of tests performed either abroad or here.”

Later (after Mr Barry attempted to raise an article in The Irish Times  about two women having seen Mr Hogan at the K Club. One of the women told the newspaper that she saw Mr Hogan having dinner at the K Club on the night of Friday, July 31.  Mr Hogan has claimed he flew into Ireland on July 31 and self-isolated until August 5. In response to his attempt chair of the committee Michael McNamara told Mr Barry to stay within the committee’s terms of reference.).

Barry: “Let me put it this way, if someone were to be staying in a complex, a hotel complex with apartments within a timeframe of a 14-day quarantine and they were to stay at that complex but to dine in a public restaurant and other public places within that complex. Would that constitute a breach of the 14-day quarantine?”

Chairman Michael McNamara: “I don’t really think it’s fair to say that we’re talking in generalities here because we’re not from your first question and I return…I’m happy…if this is within the terms of reference I’m happy to have it discussed but I’m very keen to remain within our terms of reference, Deputy Barry.”

Barry: “Chair, I would like an answer to the question. I’m not naming any individual. I’m saying that if someone were to be within a hotel complex or an apartment, within a 14-day quarantine…”

McNamara: “You’re asking this question in the context of a political controversy that’s ongoing. It is.”

Reid: “All of our guidance is on our site. I’m happy to circulate it again to the committee but it’s very clear on the site.”

McNamara: “Where it is on the site…because, I mean, I, at one point, went to find it and I found it remarkably difficult to find the guidance. I’m not suggesting for a moment it’s not on your site but where is it? Because the guidance does change as the medical advice changes in response to what is a changing scenario. Where is it available on the HSE website? I’m conscious of the fact Deputy Barry has two minutes left. Maybe I’ll come back to that and let Deputy Barry, let him finish his time…”

Earlier: Easy Pickings

Update:


From top: Brian Hayes, CEO of the Banking and Payments Federation Ireland; place setting at the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner

Anyone?

Promontoria is New York-based equity fund Cerberus’s Irish operation. Among its many holdings in Ireland, it purchased over 5,000 Ulster Bank mortgages with a face value of €1.6billion, and was central to the Project Eagle shenanigans.

Rollingnews

Thursday UPDATE:

Mr Hayes  says that his guests, listed on the event’s seating plan, were school friends and not directors of a vulture fund, a rumour which has spread on social media.

“They have no involvement in banking/financial services. I’ve seen the social media claims about vulture funds etc and it’s all made up. They are personal friends of mine for over 30 years.

“On lobbying – I was invited as a former member and attended in a private capacity while on holiday. I did not lobby anyone about anything.”

Mr Hayes has said that he would not be standing down from his role, saying that he is “a private citizen“.

Hayes says social media speculation over his golf dinner guests is ‘all made up’ (Irish Examiner)

This afternoon.

Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2.

Where are your masks?

Emergency services leaving the Department of Health after a suspicious package (possibly declared non-suspicious) was discovered, causing the building to be evacuated.

Leah Farrell/Rollingnews

Did EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan breach European Commission rules on document security

It doesn’t rain but it pours.

Further to Golfgate….

…William Campbell, host of podcast Here’s How writes (full article at link below):

‘Phil Hogan’s spokesperson, in their defence of his shifting story of how he drove laps around Ireland, in and out of Covid hot-spot Kildare, said that the reason for him visiting his apartment in the K Club was that:

“He stopped briefly at his apartment to collect personal belongings and essential documents relating to the EU-US trade negotiations, which continued while the Commissioner was in Galway.”

…A European Commission spokesperson confirmed they have a detailed policy, Security Notice C(2019) 1904, for dealing with confidential documents, and that the documents in question were in the category “sensitive non-classified”.

The problem for Hogan is how could documents so trivial as not to be covered by Commission document security rules, still meet the ‘essential work’ standard in the lockdown rules.

…The EC spokesperson also confirmed that the commissioner’s home in Brussels got a security audit, but not his other residences, and said that, as per their policy, these documents must only be distributed on a need-to-know basis, that all recipients should be aware of the handling instructions, and the documents must be shredded to a particular standard when no longer needed.

And where possible, documents should be stored in a locked office or a locked cupboard when not in use.

Phil Hogan drove to Covid-stricken Kildare and picked up these sensitive documents, perhaps from a locked office or a locking document cupboard in his apartment, that’s not clear.

He then drove with them to the golf dinner in Galway. Then what? Maybe he left them in his car, but that certainly doesn’t meet the handling requirements.

Maybe he had a hotel room and he left them there. Or maybe he just kept them in his jacket pocket, or under the table in his briefcase as he downed the gargle.

These requirements are not suggestions. The Commission has confirmed that the document handling rules are binding and apply to all staff and commissioners.’ (continued below)

Phil Hogan May have Broken EC Document Security Rules (William Campbell, here’s How)

Earlier: Too Phil To Fail

Rollingnews

EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan

1pm UPDATE: EU Trade Commissioner Phil Hogan has provided around 20 pages of documents to the President of the European Commission in the ongoing controversy over his trip to Ireland and the Clifden golf dinner, according to an EU official.  The documents include guidelines from the Irish Hotels Federation and a map of Ireland showing individual counties.

Earlier…

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has given a deadline of 1pm Dublin time to Phil Hogan to submit a full account of his movements in Ireland.

Earlier…

It has emerged that following [EU Commission President] Urulsa von der Leyen’s request there were “further contacts” but an EU source last night sounded a pessimistic note saying they “could not say whether she received all clarifications or not”

There are growing doubts among senior Ministers that Mr Hogan can hold on to his role as EU trade commissioner.

Doubts grow in Dublin, Brussels over Phil Hogan’s future amid controversy over golf event travel (Irish Times)

Alternatively…

Hogan could, in theory, be dismissed by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. But it is hard to see what advantage she could accrue from toppling her trade commissioner and destabilizing her administration for the sake of calming a political storm in a country that accounts for only 1.1 percent of the EU’s population.

Only once has a commissioner been obliged to resign — Malta’s John Dalli in 2012, amid allegations that the tobacco industry sought to bribe the then commissioner for health to alter proposed legislation.

No such corruption is involved in the case of the golf society dinner. The allegation is rather one of rank hypocrisy: that the politicians in attendance were ignoring the coronavirus measures they had imposed on others.

Why Phil Hogan will survive ‘golfgate’ (Politico)

Rollingnews