Covid-19: Concerns growing recent controversies undermining State response

Concerns are growing in Government that serial controversies, culminating in the resignation of Minister for Agriculture Dara Calleary on Friday, are undermining the State's response to the Covid-19 crisis.

Multiple sources across Government on Friday expressed the view that a series of errors this week risked the stability of the Government as it faces into a challenging period.

"I thought yesterday the Government had had the worst possible week it could have had," one Cabinet Minister said on Friday, after Mr Calleary and Seanad leas cathoirleach Jerry Buttimer resigned due to their attendance at an Oireachtas golf society event that appeared to breach pandemic rules on gatherings.

“I am genuinely struggling to comprehend how colleagues can even do this,” said the Minister, adding that social solidarity was already being tested as restrictions wore on and were intensified. “Hash tag ‘in this together’ was getting a bit jaded anyway.”

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“We are facing huge hurdles; the Leaving Cert is a potential trip hazard, the budget, the next phase of dealing with Covid and the Brexit landmine,” said another cabinet member. “We do need to get our house in order, do our business professionally, communicate crisply with the public. You can’t sustain endless weeks like this, something will give.”

Dusting down

The Taoiseach said there were no plans to recall the Dáil next week, but senior sources said Friday evening there had been no final decision made on whether the House would be recalled before it is due back on September 15th.

Michael McGrath, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, told The Irish Times that “events like this can undermine the message that we are trying to convey to the public”.

“I fully accept that as a member of Government this shouldn’t have happened if we want to retain the trust and confidence of people,” he said.

Mr McGrath argued that “the government will dust itself down and it will recover from this setback and provide a good government into the future, but there’s no getting away from the fact it has been a difficult week.”

He said that the Government had achieved a lot, including the July stimulus and the plan for reopening schools. “There are too many people working incredibly hard on this for us to in any way accept defeat or give up. We will win this battle against Covid-19 and we need to focus all efforts on bringing people with us.”

Mr Calleary’s resignation followed a week which saw a fractious cabinet meeting over renewed restrictions due to a rise in Covid-19 viruses, strong criticism of communications over what cultural activities were permitted, as well as of the Minister for Health’s performance in a midweek broadcast interview.

‘Horrifingly embarrassed’

A Fine Gael cabinet member said there was a need for a "real and sincere mea culpa" from the Taoiseach and the wider Government.

Another Fine Gael minister said there had been a “litany of different things and if that continued there’d be a problem”. “[There have been] so many different errors and if another thing happens, it’d be very hard to have faith,” the Minister said. “We’re almost at breaking point as it is.”

A senior Government source expressed scepticism about the capacity of the administration to function effectively. “I get no sense that there is any shared understanding on how to fix the dysfunction at the heart of this government,” the source said.

A Fianna Fáil minister of state said they were "horrifingly embarrassed" after the week, especially the golf society dinner. "Anything that was ever wrong with a Fianna Fáil tent in Galway was wrong with the Station House in Galway," the junior minister said.

The minister added that voters were losing patience with the Government, with the controversy over the golf dinner escalating things further.