What Big Phil was at in Brussels while his successor took the flak
EUROPEAN Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan had a busy day in Brussels on Wednesday while his replacement in the Department of the Environment, Alan Kelly, was left to handle the fallout.
After a morning meeting, Mr Hogan enjoyed a buffet lunch with his new European colleagues in the Berlaymont building before recording a speech for a forthcoming seminar in Dublin.
Around the time that Mr Kelly was announcing a drastically revised Irish Water plan to a hostile Dáil, the new commissioner was handing out medals to officials who had worked in the EU Commission for 20 years.
‘Jobs, Growth and Investment’ was next on the agenda as Mr Hogan attended a meeting chaired by Frans Timmermans, the vicepresident who is in charge of Better Regulation in the Commission.
The Kilkennyman, who will take home €336,000 from his first year as a European commissioner, then took phone calls from several member states’ ministers for agriculture and stayed in his office until 8.30pm Brussels time.
Mr Hogan, who oversaw the creation of Irish Water, refused to take any questions on the issue while speaking to the press on Tuesday, saying only that he ‘looked forward to hearing what the Government has to say’.
Mr Kelly went on radio after the Government’s climbdown on the Irish Water issue to say that ‘mistakes were made’.
He added that he felt that Mr Hogan ‘could have done better’.
‘I think this issue was underestimated from a scale point of view [and] from a timeline point of view,’ he said.