“I regret very much that those events did lead to this controversy in the last week.”
Minister for Transport and the Environment Eamon Ryan has said that attendance from government officials such as himself and Leo Varadkar at recent parties “undermined public confidence”.
Ryan said that he “regrets” attending the party organised by Green Party candidate Claire Byrne at Merrion cricket grounds, adding that the party was “invitation only” and was within the guidelines for that type of venue.
“Clearly in hindsight, in terms of maintaining public confidence, I would have preferred had we not attended those events, because anything that in any way undermines public confidence doesn’t help,” he said on Newstalk Breakfast on Monday.
“I regret very much that those events did lead to this controversy in the last week.”
“I think this whole controversy has undermined public confidence,” he added.
Ryan said that it was a “real problem” that the guidelines were not updated, as he said that the current plan is to “continue to reopen the country”, including arts and entertainment sectors.
“It is a real problem and it’s a real regret that the guidelines in regard to those events weren’t as clear as they should have been and it’s appropriate that they have been updated, and will continue to be updated because what we now need to do is to continue to reopen the country,” he said.
It comes as a number of politicians have been found to have attended large gatherings over recent weeks.
News broke on Wednesday that Ryan attended a large outdoor party organised by a Green Party councillor at Merrion Cricket Club after the Dublin Bay South by-election.
According to the Irish Examiner, the event was organised by Green candidate Claire Byrne on 29 July and was held “to thank those who campaigned” for her in the by-election.
The Irish Examiner reported on Wednesday that photos from the event showed Byrne alongside multiple guests, many of whom were out of their seats, with Byrne saying that “no more than 50 people were in attendance at any one time”.
However, the invite to the Green Party event was reportedly sent to 3,500 members.
The news came after Katherine Zappone confirmed on Wednesday that she will not accept the appointment as Special Envoy on freedom of opinion and expression in a statement that failed to address a 50-person function held days before the announcement of the appointment.
Zappone issued the statement on the same day it was reported that she hosted a private outdoor function attended by the Tánaiste and around 50 other people.
Meanwhile, video footage also emerged online on Thursday appearing to show breaches of Covid-19 regulations at a pub in Kilgarvin owned by Independent TD Danny Healy Rae.
The video was uploaded by Radio Kerry’s current affairs programme Kerry Today on Twitter, and shows a gathering in the pub with an apparent lack of mask-wearing and social distancing.
The video footage from the gathering shows Healy-Rae in attendance and posing for pictures.
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