‘Anyone with an ounce of sense would not attend’
A GUEST at the hotel where the Golfgate scandal took place has said that ‘anyone with an ounce of sense’ would have pulled out of the event if they had seen the number of people who were attending.
The man, identified as Cormac on Liveline on RTÉ radio, said that he was in the hotel with his six-year-old son, who reminded the other family members to wear their masks when they left their room, yet many of the Oireachtas members were not wearing masks.
He added that Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer was not wearing a mask when he saw him downstairs. Mr Buttimer has since resigned as Leas-Cathaoirleach of the Seanad.
Cormac said he was surprised to see the close layout of tables at the event.
‘When I saw the table plan – absolutely anyone with any sense would have looked around and said, “I’m getting out of here”.
‘Questions have to be answered’
‘Anyone with an ounce of sense would have backed away. None of them seemed to have an ounce of sense.’
Referring to European Trade Commissioner, Phil Hogan, and Supreme Court Justice Seamus Wolfe, he said that it appears that it is ‘one law for the elites and one law for the rest of us’.
He said that it has since transpired that Commissioner Hogan came in and out of Kildare during its current lockdown.
‘Questions have to be answered,’ he added.
He said that, in fairness to the Oireachtas group, they did appear to be touching elbows rather than shaking hands. He didn’t know if they observed the mandatory 11.30pm closing time for events because he and his family had retired to their room at that point.
Recalling the events in Clifden, he said that he and his family had been staying at the hotel all week.
On Tuesday, he saw a number of politicians, naming Jerry Buttimer, retired senator Donie Cassidy and Galway West Independent TD Noel Grealish among the group. He then heard that Commissioner Phil Hogan was coming.
It wasn’t until the next day, Wednesday, that he discovered that it was for a golfing event.
He looked into the function room and could see the staff placing green, white and gold napkins.
He said he had a look at the table plan, which was located at the entrance to the reception room and could recognise the names of politicians and a Supreme Court judge.
He was immediately struck that Supreme Court Justice Seamus Wolfe was the Attorney General until very recently and was the person responsible for reviewing the coronavirus restrictions.
The table plan for all the tables was at the main door to the reception, which indicated that all guests came in the same way, regardless of which side of the partition they were seated.
He added that the partition was made of folded material and went right across the room.
‘When we retired to our room, I said to my wife, “There is going to be trouble over this”.’