HOGAN: WHY RULES DON’T APPLY TO ME
EU Commissioner’s TV defence angers Government ministers
EMBATTLED EU Commissioner Phil Hogan yesterday insisted a negative Covid-19 test meant quarantine rules did not apply to him – as he tried to explain an August odyssey visiting golf courses and hotels around Ireland.
He tried to put the controversy over his participation in the Clifden golf dinner and revelations about his movements, in apparent violation of Covid-19 rules, to bed with a TV interview and statement.
But his insistence that a negative result in a Covid-19 test he took, soon after he arrived in Ireland, allowed him to travel to Co. Limerick to play golf did not stand up when compared to Government guidelines on the matter.
And last night the three Government party leaders jointly made a statement saying that he had breached public health guidelines
and ‘undermined public confidence’ with the drip feed of information about his movements.
And a Government minister, who has been deeply involved in constructing Ireland’s Covid-19 regulations, told the Irish Daily Mail last night that Mr Hogan’s interview was a ‘disaster’, and insisted that he ‘had to go’.
The minister added: ‘And if he doesn’t, the credibility of the entire Commission on Covid-19 is seriously damaged.’
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Mr Hogan stayed at the Dunraven Arms in Adare, Co. Limerick, on August 12, a day before his 14-day self-isolation period expired, which he omitted from a timeline of his movements that he provided to the European Commission.
The Mail has been told he ate dinner in a busy restaurant there on the night before he played a round of golf at Adare Manor.
And late last night, after the TV interview, he was still defending his actions. In a desperate tweet he insisted he wasn’t saying, in that interview, that the public health advice did not apply to him.
He tweeted: ‘Regarding my earlier interview with @tonyconnelly just to clarify: I never said that I don’t accept the HSE advice, I was taking issue at the proposition put to me in the interview. At all times, I acted in good faith on the basis of the information available to me.’
Micheál Martin, Leo Varadkar
‘I never said I didn’t accept HSE advice’
and Eamon Ryan said last night in a joint statement that they acknowledged Mr Hogan’s account of his movements and welcomed his apology. However, they added that ‘concerns remain’.
‘It is clear that breaches of public health guidelines were made by Commissioner Phil Hogan since he travelled to Ireland. The Government guidelines clearly required him to restrict his movements for 14 days. He should also have limited his movements to and from Kildare for essential travel only, and he should not have attended the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner,’ they said. ‘People are correctly angered by these actions, given the sacrifices so many have made to adhere to public health guidance.
‘In addition, his delayed and hesitant release of information has undermined public confidence.’
They added that the Government now awaits the outcome of a review by the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
And Education Minister Norma Foley last night said it was obvious Mr Hogan had breached public health guidelines.
Mr Hogan was among 81 guests who attended the controversial golf dinner in Clifden, Co. Galway.
He returned to Ireland on July 31 and was required to restrict his movements for 14 days.
In a document published on the European Commission website, he said he tested negative for Covid-19 while in hospital for treatment on August 5 and claimed that ‘ended the self-restriction period’.
He told RTÉ last night: ‘I am satisfied, arising from the test that I did that proved it was negative, that I was no risk to anybody.
‘Because of the fact that I had a negative test. Because my medical people said I was no risk to anybody. I checked with the Citizens Information website, which is funded by the HSE, and I felt that I was no risk to anybody by going to Adare. I understand the perception. I was covered by the regulations with my workrelated activities and under the regulation there is a reasonable excuse mechanism that allowed me the exemption to do that.’
The HSE issued a statement on the regulations last night, saying: ‘Health Service Executive guidance states that when someone is restricting their movements because they are a close contact of a confirmed case or because they have travelled into Ireland from a non-green list country, they must do so for 14 days. The HSE guidance does not state that a negative (not detected) Covid-19 test shortens the 14-day restricted movement requirement.’
Leading infectious diseases expert, Dr Jack Lambert, last night said the incubation period of the virus can be up to 14 days, ‘you could be negative at six days and then go positive at seven days or go positive at eight days’.
He told the Mail: ‘There’s a reason we got this kind of guidance.’
Ministers are understood to be angry at Mr Hogan’s interview, with a Government source telling the Mail: ‘The reality is restrictions are in place to keep people safe. He didn’t follow them. Therefore he has risked people’s safety.’ His decision to stay at the Dunraven Arms while he should have been quarantined was ‘a risk to public health,’ a Cabinet source said. Following a request from Ms von der Leyen, Mr Hogan published the timeline of his movements in Ireland, in which he revealed he played golf in Adare, Co. Limerick, before returning to Kilkenny on August 13. He was challenged about this and other aspects of his
‘You can go positive after eight days’
movements, in the tense interview with RTÉ’s Europe Correspondent Tony Connolly last night.
The interview, designed to rescue his reputation and €360,000-a-year job, has only added to the pressure on him to resign.
The trade and former agriculture commissioner has already been urged to consider his position by Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
When it was put to him, during the interview, that even with a negative Covid test, upon returning from abroad, you’re still obliged to see out the end of your 14-day restricted period, Mr Hogan said: ‘Well, I don’t accept that. I did everything possible to ensure I was no risk to anybody. I tested negatively for Covid-19. My medical people said I was free to go. I looked at the websites and checked the regulations, as any person would do, and I checked on the citizens’ information website, which is funded by the Health Service Executive, the same people you’re quoting, and it stated very explicitly, very explicitly, that if you
have a Covid-19 negative test, you are free to go where you wish and you don’t have to self-isolate.’
Mr Hogan’s statement to Ms von der Leyen and TV interview have ‘raised further embarrassing questions’, according to sources in Government. He failed to mention his stay at the Dunraven Arms in either. At the Limerick hotel, a witness has told the Mail, he would have come into contact with many people. A well-known businessman who often stays there told the Mail last night: ‘I was in the hotel and I went into the bar for a drink and I stepped outside and there is a conservatory off the bar, and he [Phil Hogan] was having dinner in there with another gentleman. And I recognised him instantly as he’s a very recognisable fellow.
‘And then subsequently when I was going up to my room, later on, he was coming down the corridor from his room, so he stayed in the hotel. He was coming down the guest corridor. I had a nod and a hello in the corridor. He was having dinner in the conservatory, the hotel was quite busy that night, there would have been a lot of people passed him.’
Mr Hogan provided 20 pages of documents to Ms von der Leyen after she requested further details of his trip home. He said he had completed a passenger locator form on arrival, on July 31, before travelling to his property in Co. Kildare. He stayed there until he was admitted to a Dublin hospital on August 5. It was during this overnight stay he tested negative and after he was discharged, on August 6, he ‘briefly’ returned to his apartment in Co. Kildare.
The following day, he travelled to Kilkenny before extra restrictions came into force in Co. Kildare.
On August 12, he travelled to Dublin to hold a meeting with Tánaiste Mr Varadkar and visit the European Commission’s office. The following day, he said he played golf in Adare. He then returned to Kilkenny, where he was born and spent much of his political career.
According to the document, published yesterday, he travelled from Kilkenny to Galway for the golf and dinner society event via lockeddown Kildare on August 17.
Mr Hogan was engaged in trade negotiations on behalf of the EU with the US at the time and believes his journeys were allowable as essential business.
He returned to Kildare on August 21 to collect personal belongings, including his passport. He said he stayed there overnight to catch an early morning flight to Brussels from the nearby airport. During his
‘I recognised him instantly’
interview last night, Mr Hogan said: ‘I self-isolated for the days up to the 5th of August. I was required to go to hospital. I tested negatively for Covid, so I was Covid-free. My doctor said I was free to go. But I didn’t take that for granted.
‘I looked at the consumer information website, which is read by hundreds of thousands of people in Ireland, which is funded by the HSE, which is the citizens’ information website and its clear on that website, clearly stated that if you test negative for Covid-19, you’ll get your result via text message and you will no longer be required to self-isolate. It’s very clear.’
He said that he thought the people of Ireland were ‘very reasonable people’.