‘Security the driving issue in car move’
TÁNAISTE Leo Varadkar has said there is no ‘mystery’ or ‘conspiracy’ around how the decision was reached that the Foreign Affairs Minister should get a State car and two Garda drivers.
It comes amid controversy that former tánaiste Simon Coveney has been allowed retain his State car, at a cost of €200,000 per year to the taxpayer.
Previously, only the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Justice Minister get this service in government.
It emerged on Wednesday night that former taoiseach Mr Varadkar made a request for a State car for his party colleague, Mr Coveney, while he was still in the role.
Labour Party leader Alan Kelly asked how Mr Varadkar, as taoiseach of the last government, made a request for a State car for a minister in a government that had not yet been formed.
Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that it has long been security protocol that the Foreign Affairs Minister needs Garda transport when going to the North.
He said: ‘There is no mystery and conspiracy here, Deputy, and you can try to exaggerate it.
‘There are particular security protocols when it comes to the Minister for Foreign Affairs travelling to Northern Ireland.
‘Whenever the Minister travels there, that person has to have a Garda car and Garda protection.
‘They are then met by the PSNI at the border to be escorted through Northern Ireland.
‘That has been security protocol for the past 20 years.
‘The tánaiste is usually also the foreign affairs minister so this has not been an issue.
‘However, it did happen on occasion when the minister for foreign affairs was not the tánaiste and they needed civilian drivers when they were south of the border and then had a Garda car when in Northern Ireland.
‘When I knew I was going to be the Tánaiste of this new Government and there was going to be a new Foreign Affairs Minister, I asked the secretary general to look into the matter and decide what was appropriate.
‘That was the beginning and end of my involvement in it.’
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Fine Gael should pick up the bill for Simon Coveney’s State car.
She said the saga over the controversial perk ‘points again to the fact that this is a very disorganised, very chaotic, very shambolic Government’.
‘The Minister for Foreign Affairs has an important job to do but it does not require a car and a driver at the cost of €200,000 per annum,’ she told Newstalk Breakfast.
She said ministers only need protection when they are facing a ‘direct threat or menace’.
‘That applies to every citizen and everybody on public duty including the Minister for Foreign Affairs – but that is not the case as I understand it,’ she said.
‘I am not disputing the fact that the man might need a driver, that is fair enough, but that could be provided, I would suggest, from Fine Gael party resources.
‘I think that resource is the kind of resource you should use to provide the kind of assistance that a busy person like the Minister would require.’
‘Protocol for the past 20 years’