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Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has dismissed a Sinn Féin call for an independent inquiry into events at Iveagh House during which Covid protocols were breached.
A report into the champagne event in 2020 found “a breach of social distance guidance occurred” when staff at the Department of Foreign Affairs came together physically to celebrate Ireland’s election to the UN Security Council.
The breach was captured in a photograph taken by then secretary general at the Department, Niall Burgess, which showed a group of about 20 officials huddled in an office at the Department’s headquarters, drinking bottles of Moët & Chandon without face coverings or regard for physical distancing..
The photograph was posted on Twitter but was subsequently removed.
The report found the event “caused offence, inflicted reputational damage on the Department and undermined internal morale”.
Mr Burgess was found to be “largely responsible for facilitating the breach of social distance guidance that occurred”. He has been asked to pay €2,000 to a charity providing assistance to people affected by Covid. Three other senior officials have been asked to donate €1,000.
“I don’t see what else there is to know here,” Mr Coveney told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland. “Clearly this shouldn’t have happened. It was a moment of celebration that was careless.”
The Minister, who was not at the event, said he understood that people had been very annoyed.
Mr Coveney said that when he arrived later a member of his staff told him about the photograph that Mr Burgess had tweeted. It was taken down, but not at Mr Coveney’s request, he said.
Mr Coveney said he did not speak to the then secretary general, saying “I trusted him”. However, he accepted that, “with the benefit of hindsight, knowing what I know now”, he would have spoken to him.
“This event was completely uncharacteristic,” he added.
Mr Coveney said it was the responsibility of the secretary general to deal with what he saw as a “workplace mistake”.
The Minister added that “any fair-minded person will view this as a fair report” when asked about the independence of the review, which was carried out by the Department’s current secretary general Joe Hackett.
Accountability
Earlier on Morning Ireland, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said that the internal review did not provide accountability because Mr Coveney’s role was not covered.
The Minister “did nothing” on the night when he was alerted to the breach of Covid-19 restrictions and only set up an investigation to try and “bury” the issue when he was forced to, said Mr Doherty.
Sinn Féin was not alone in expressing concern about the review, he added.
Mr Doherty said that Mr Hackett had not interviewed Mr Coveney for the review because it was outside his terms of reference, but added that those terms of reference had been drafted by Mr Coveney.
“In my view, this Minister in particular hasn’t learned any lessons from the Katherine Zappone scandal, hasn’t learned any lessons in terms of accountability and it’s probably a symptom in my view that these Ministers are in Government for far too long.”
The Social Democrats’ spokesman on foreign affairs, Gary Gannon, called on Mr Coveney and Mr Hackett to come before the Oireachtas foreign affairs committee to answer questions.
Mr Gannon told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne programme that he wanted to understand if there was a pattern in celebrations within Iveagh House and in how people assembled.
The report by Mr Hackett was “a slap in the face” to everyone else who was observing Covid rules at the time, he said, and it was not going to inspire confidence.
Mr Gannon said that Mr Coveney had not clarified what he knew now that he did not know then, and said: “He should have asked questions then.”
The amount Mr Burgess was asked to donate also needed to be addressed, he said: “How did he [Mr Hackett] come to that figure? . . . Burgess has a high wage, this is just a slap on the wrist.”