‘Gardaí would not have stopped me if they knew’
PHIL Hogan believes that the gardaí would not have stopped him for being on his mobile phone while driving had they known ‘an EU Commissioner or politician’ was at the wheel.
As the details of the EU Commissioner’s Covid restriction-busting tour around Ireland emerged, it was disclosed that he had been stopped by a garda while speaking on his mobile phone.
In a move that the average motorist will view as unusual, the garda decided to let Mr Hogan off with a caution.
Speaking of the incident in an interview, Mr Hogan said: ‘If they knew I was a European Commissioner or a politician, they wouldn’t be stopping me.’
The comment was made in a segment of an interview with RTÉ’s Tony Connolly that was not broadcast on the TV news. Quizzed about being pulled over on August 17 while en route to Galway, Mr Hogan said: ‘The police were doing their job and doing it well. And it was reported back in the system.
‘And it was arising from this that I got a call from the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste to explain all about this on Saturday last, which I did fully,’ he said.
Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said: ‘To be honest with you, he has just made matters worse for himself all along. I would expect that if I was on a mobile phone and a garda stopped me that I would be treated the same as anybody else would be treated.’
A minister last night said that the comment about not being stopped was illustrative of a ‘generally dismissive attitude’ of Mr Hogan to rules that apply to the public.