TAOISEACH ENDA Kenny has said he took the decision to call off a planned Fine Gael event to mark the anniversary of the party’s first year in office.
Mr Kenny said the event had been promoted “maybe over-enthusiastically” by Fine Gael, but he felt it was not appropriate given the scale of the challenges facing the country.
“I did not regard this as an appropriate celebration of a year in office,” said Mr Kenny, who described the controversy as a “non-story”.
Speaking at the Custom House in Dublin for the launch of the “Succeed in Ireland” initiative, Mr Kenny said he became aware of the planned event yesterday morning and it was at that stage that he had decided to cancel it.
A photo-call involving Fine Gael TDs and Senators holding up coloured stars to illustrate significant achievements had been planned for Merrion Square, Dublin, at lunchtime yesterday.
The matter was discussed at the weekly meeting of the Fine Gael parliamentary party on Wednesday evening, at which the Taoiseach was present.
A number of speakers, including John Deasy from Waterford, queried whether the event was appropriate, but by that stage a press release had been sent out inviting the media to the photocall.
Yesterday morning, Minister for Communications Pat Rabbitte (Labour) described the event as “silly” and “inappropriate”, and shortly afterwards Fine Gael issued a statement saying it had been cancelled.
At a joint press conference with Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore on Wednesday to launch its first annual report on the programme for government, the Taoiseach said he was not looking for “any gold stars” as a result of the Coalition’s performance during its first 12 months in Government.
Fine Gael head of communications Tom Fabozzi said yesterday he had taken the decision to cancel the event after discussions with party colleagues and officials. He said no Minister had been involved in the decision to cancel the event and there had been no contact with Labour.
He said the decision was taken when it was discovered the Labour Party was not holding its own event.
“For us to go ahead would have been inappropriate, like one hand clapping. Obviously there are no rifts between the parties. We did not want to look triumphalist.”
Asked whether it was embarrassing, he said that was probably for other people to decide.
Speaking at a conference on health service reform in Croke Park, Minister for Health James Reilly agreed with Mr Rabbitte’s comments about the planned event.
“I don’t believe we are in any celebratory mood whatsoever. We are in the business as Ministers of addressing the major issues ahead of us. Health is a huge task, education has huge difficulties . . . Everybody is far too busy and focused on their work to be celebrating anything,” he said.
Asked whether the Taoiseach or other Ministers had been involved in planning the event, he said, “It might have been some over-enthusiastic individuals in the back room. . .
“Obviously they’ve their job to do. I’ve my job to do; my job is about getting this health service fixed and supporting my party colleagues in getting this country back on its feet.”