The long winding road to resignation for the Kilkenny political colossus
The Muscles From Brussels
Phil Hogan flies in from Brussels on July 31 for a three-week stay, spending most of his time in his native Kilkenny and in the exclusive K Club in lockdown-hit Kildare. Belgium is not on Ireland’s list of ten countries to which travel without quarantine is permitted. Indeed, it has the fifth highest infection rate in the EU after Spain, Malta, Luxembourg and Romania, and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control this month put Belgium in its ‘dark orange’ zone, meaning it has a high infection rate, with over 60 infections per 100,000 inhabitants. Under those circumstances, and under Irish rules, Phil Hogan should have self-isolated in Ireland for 14 days. However, he is seen having dinner in the K Club that evening.
Ireland’s Most Luxurious Hotel
His movements are largely unknown for the next few days, except that he is based at the five-star K Club, which bills itself as Ireland’s first AA 5 Red Star Hotel. The hotel is closed to the public but Phil Hogan has an apartment there so can come and go. He resurfaces on August 5, when he is admitted to a Dublin hospital for a medical procedure. While in hospital, he tests negative for Covid-19. He later claims that the citizens information website confirms that a negative test result ends the self-restriction period – a claim hotly disputed by critics who say that only applies to those who showed potential symptoms and were then cleared, not those self-isolating after coming from other countries. He is discharged from the Dublin hospital the following day, August 6, and ‘returned briefly’ to the K Club. Eyewitness Brenda O’Connor was surprised to see Mr Hogan that day. Ms O’Connor said that she had witnessed Mr Hogan and another ‘gentleman’ sitting in the library of the K Club just hours after his medical appointment in Dublin. He was making no attempt to self isolate. She would recall on RTE’s Liveline: ‘In the early afternoon on August 6 my husband had gone to the driving range and I went into the library with my book to sit down and read,’ she said. When she got there, she saw Mr Hogan talking with the other man.
Exodus From The Lockdown County
On August 7, Kildare is being ravaged by coronavirus, more than any other county in the country. The government announces that, at midnight, Kildare, Offaly and Laois are going into a local lockdown and that nobody should travel outside those counties unless it is essential. Later that day, before the deadline, Phil Hogan travelled from the K Club to Kilkenny. He stayed in Kilkenny, where he has family and then, on August 12, travelled to Dublin ‘for essential work reasons’, which required his attendance at the European Commission office. While in Dublin, he had separate meetings with the Tánaiste, Mr Varadkar, and with Minister Robert Troy, to brief them on events relating to ongoing negotiations with the US. If he should have been self-isolating for 14 days, then he was putting Leo Varadkar and Robert Troy at risk. At no point in his detailed memorandum submitted to the European Commission does he state where he stayed that night. However, sources have confirmed to the Mail that Mr Hogan stayed at the Dunraven Arms in Limerick and ate dinner in a busy restaurant. Witnesses told the Irish Daily Mail, he would have come into contact with many members of the public during his stay. A well-known businessman who often stays at the Dunraven Arms told the Mail: ‘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.’ A Government Minister has said Mr Hogan’s decision to stay at the Dunraven Arms when he should have been quarantining was ‘a risk to public health’. The next day, August 13, he played golf at Adare Manor, Co. Limerick. Another sojourn in Kilkenny for several days followed before a return to Kildare on August 17.
The Mobile Commissioner
On August 17, gardaí stop him in Kildare because he is talking on his mobile phone while driving. They release him with a caution. He later claims that they wouldn’t have stopped him if they knew he was a European Commissioner. He says that, while in Kildare, he collected some personal belongings and essential papers relating to the ongoing US-EU trade negotiations before heading off to Galway. He stayed at a hotel there and played golf in Clifden on August 18.
A Day Out In Clifden
The next day now lives in infamy. The details of the August 19 event hardly need rehashing. Mr Hogan has repeatedly apologised for attending the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner. There were 81 guests, divided by a partition, but they all entered the function room by the same door. New restrictions reduced the numbers permissible at an indoor event to 15 and were announced on August 18, the day before the event. Mr Hogan says that the dinner was not covered by restrictions as the statutory instrument giving effect to the new rule was not available until after the dinner.
Golf And Talks
Two days after the event, on August 21, he returned from Galway to the K Club to collect his remaining personal belongings, including his passport, and stayed there overnight to catch an early morning flight to his primary
residence in Brussels. His EU-US talks, using notes he retrieved at the K Club, culminated that day in an agreement on a package of tariff reductions.
Trouble Erupts
The next day, August 22, he returned to Brussels. The same day, Golfate exploded into public consciousness and various TDs apologise for their presence at the event. The pressure mounts for Mr Hogan to resign. On August 25, he appeared on RTÉ News. While he apologised for attending the Clifden event, he repeated over and over that he was entitled to come out of self-isolation after he tested negative for coronavirus on August 5. Whatever respite he felt from the interview, it didn’t last long. The next day, August 26, Commissioner Hogan finally threw in the towel and announced his resignation.