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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has met with a group of three Fine Gael senators to discuss the fall-out from the Golfgate dinner and subsequent sanctions.
Three Fine Gael senators, Jerry Buttimer, Paddy Burke and John Cummins, lost the Fine Gael whip over their attendance at the dinner in Clifden two years ago.
Mr Buttimer also resigned as leas-cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
Mr Burke is understood to have questioned the procedures that were used to remove the party whip from the group of three for period of six months. He believes that the parliamentary party should have had a say.
A meeting between Mr Varadkar and the three men took place on Tuesday. It is understood they met individually, one-on-one with Mr Varadkar. Sources said the conversations differed with one described as “frank” and another described as being very far from acrimonious.
Sources say Mr Varadkar outlined the course of events at the time and why he took the actions he did. He told the senators that he would fully address the issue at a meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party tonight.
Speaking at the Fine Gael parliamentary party meeting last week, Mr Burke is understood to have told his party colleagues that he thought Mr Varadkar would have addressed the recent acquittal of four men who stood trial over the dinner.
Mr Varadkar addressed the issue this week, after being asked about a potential case which has been hinted at by former EU Commisisoner Phil Hogan: “The whole thing is regrettable. Of course it is. Not just for Mr Hogan but for anyone who is involved. But we have to remember the circumstances as they actually occurred . . . the Government took a decision, the Taoiseach announced on the Six One News that all indoor events, all parties were to be cancelled, that no more than six people were supposed to meet in a pub or a restaurant or a hotel and he said it was effective immediately.”
He said it is the case that the law wasn’t changed for another nine or 10 days but that the dinner “should have been cancelled” when the Government made its announcement.
“I regret that that event was not cancelled that night. Had it been I don’t think anybody would have suffered the way they did,” said Mr Varadkar.
Golf dinner
Earlier this month a District Court judge dismissed charges against four men accused of organising the Oireachtas Society Golf dinner in a Clifden hotel two years ago.
Independent TD Noel Grealish and former Fianna Fáil senator Donie Cassidy, along with hoteliers John Sweeney and James Sweeney, had each denied they organised the Oireachtas Golf Society event in breach of pandemic restrictions at the Station House Hotel in Clifden on August 19th, 2020.
Speaking at the end of a three-day trial at Galway District Court, Judge Mary Fahy there had been a huge body of evidence presented to the court which showed that while there had been one golf outing, there had been two distinct areas in the hotel which catered for two groups.