Who organised Galway event? asks Sinn Féin TD

Sligo Leitrim Sinn Féin TD Martin Kenny is asking who organised the Oireachtas Golf Society event in a Galway Hotel that proceeded, as planned, with in excess of 80 guests one day after stricter measures were announced to combat COVID-19.

Deputy Kenny was reacting to news this morning of the resignation Agriculture Minister, Dara Calleary (FF) and Senator Jerry Buttimer (FG) following their attendance at the event in Clifden.

The Sinn Féin TD believes the event breached COVID-19 guidelines and said the resignations were necessary and justified to make some gesture towards the decent people of Ireland who have made countless personal sacrifices to fight this pandemic.

“Everyone I have spoken to this morning is angry and upset. The careless breaking of regulations to attend a dinner based on a golfing society really beggars belief.

“Already today people have told me about not being able to attend funerals, children who desperately miss their grandparents, childcare difficulties for frontline workers and many other issues affecting them because they are observing the proper guidelines to fight Covid-19," said Deputy Kenny.

“It all smacks of one law for them and another one for us, who are trying to do our best. It seems that the Houses of the Oireachtas puts less importance on observing guidelines than my local shop or hairdresser," he continued.

The Ballinamore based TD contended small businesses are on their knees and seeking financial support, while the Houses of the Oireachtas was forking out €25,000 a day to hire the Convention Centre supposedly to keep TDs and staff safe.

"I would like to know who organised this event and I would also like to know if this Golf Society, which as a TD I must say I never heard about before, receives any public money for its activities," quizzed Deputy Kenny.

“Does this little elite think they are still back in the day, before the financial crash, when such events in the Dáil and elsewhere, like the Galway tent, were acceptable? They are not. These people are insulting the citizens who really do believe we are all in this together and who are doing their best despite a lack of leadership from government,” he lambasted.