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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has come to the defence of former Fine Gael TD Dara Murphy, claiming that he has been present for more Dáil votes in this calendar year than Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
The issue, which has been raised with the Taoiseach for over a week, was highlighted again in the Dáil today.
Earlier today, Finance and Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe told reporters that he personally has not asked Murphy to present himself to the Dail Ethics Committee for investigation.
An inquiry can only happen if Murphy agrees to present himself for investigation.
Questions have been raised about Murphy working in Brussels while also being a sitting TD in the Dáil. Questions have also been raised about how Murphy has been in Leinster House on 24 sitting days out of 70 in the first nine months of 2019 and just 42 of the 104 sitting days during 2018.
Murphy, formerly a Cork North Central TD, has faced criticism in recent weeks over reports around his attendance at Leinster House.
The former minister of State has been based in Brussels for the past two years where he has worked as full-time director of elections for the European People’s Party (EPP). Fine Gael is a member of the EPP, a political grouping in the European Union.
Fianna Fáil Leader Micheál Martin today asked the Taosieach if would be willing to return the money that Fine Gael received to support Murphy in is work as a TD.
In response, Leo Varadkar said:
“I think an impression is being created that we was totally absent from the Dáil for two years – that of course isn’t true. In fact, he was present for more votes in this calendar year than deputy [Micheál] Martin was and the same number as deputy Martin was since the middle of July.”
He told Martin that he “shouldn’t be so sensitive” and asked the Fianna Fáil leader if TDs from his party caught up in the votegate controversy “will be rewarded” with becoming ministers if Fianna Fáil make it into government next year.
Martin said the Taoiseach’s “personal attacks” in recent days “impresses no one”.
While Varadkar repeated that he wants to see an inquiry take place into Murphy, no clarity has been forthcoming from government as to what form it will take and when it will happen.
Three bodies the Taoiseach suggested should carry out an investigation have all stated it is not under their remit.
The Dáil Ethics Committee determined last week that it cannot investigate the complaint as Murphy is no longer a TD.
Other than the committee, the Standards in Public Office (Sipo), as well as the Clerk of the Dail have stated that they do not have the jurisdiction to investigate.
Attendance
Last week, the Taoiseach stated that Murphy is willing to fully comply with any inquiry.
Speaking to reporters today, Donohoe was asked if he had asked Murphy to put himself forward for investigation.
“Given that I haven’t been engaged with him directly myself, the answer to that question is no,” he said.
He added that despite his “expectation and indeed understanding” that there were ways of dealing with issues such as these relating to former TDs, Donohoe said it has become apparent that the current framework has “real limitations and constraints if the person is no longer a member of the Oireachtas”.
“We need to change that in the future… Because Mr Murphy is no longer a member of the Dail it has since become evident to me that the ways of dealing with these issues for an existing member of OIreachtas and a former member of oireachtas are very, very different. That needs to change. And I will find a way in which we can change that.
“But the issue that we have is in the here and now, and I’m aware of the fact that we need to come up with a way of dealing with this issue to answer what are legitimate questions,” he said.
He added that there has been contact with Murphy on the matter, stating:
“Before we can conclude on what way of dealing with the issue is, we need to be clear how this matter can be inquired into.”
Donohoe said the “government is dealing with the issue, and the Department of an Taoiseach and I will come up with a way of inquiring into this matter”.
He added that if he were in the same sort of circumstances as Murphy finds himself, he would want to find a way in which these matters could be concluded”.
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Bulgaria has one of the lowest vaccine uptakes in Europe. Only 28% of the population vaccinated with an extremely high case fatality rate in comparison to Ireland. Their population is only a little bigger than Ireland, and despite having lower reported case numbers – they are at upwards of 100 deaths per day.
So anyone questioning whether vaccines work, here’s your answer.
@Seán Ó Briain: They have amongst Europe’s highest death toll per head of population, with 30,530 official COVID-19 deaths and 60,140 excess deaths. They have a population only a little bigger than us, 6.9 million, that’s like us having 22,000 COVID-19 deaths and 43,000 excess deaths.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-tracker
@Colin Conlan: “However Bulgaria’s number of cases in past six months was half of Ireland’s”
Their “reported” cases.
Aren’t your kind always harping on about “only deaths matter, not cases”?
Well for a population similar to Ireland’s, they’ve had over 5 times the amount of deaths as us.
@Colin Conlan: That is misinformation of course, they had 12,017 COVID-19 deaths in the last 6 months, 778 deaths in January (564 deaths if they were same population of Ireland, but we announced 123 deaths). Their deaths in Jan were 5.6-fold ours.
https://www.google.com/search?channel=crow5&client=firefox-b-d&q=covid+bulgaria
@David Jordan: Please pay closer attention to my comment. I referred to *cases* not *deaths*.
Around 1st of July 2021 they had 422k total cases. Now they have about 800k cases.
Ireland had around 1st of July 2021 272k total cases. Now it reached 1mil.
@Colin Conlan: Are the testing as much as us?
@Colin Conlan: Also, one other thing, do you honestly think that Bulgarians equally enthusiastic about getting COVID tested as us, given their very high rates of vaccine scepticism and anti-everything?
@David Jordan: Yes, they are testing as much as Ireland. However! The correct question is: Are people there going to be tested? I could not answer that with data. But I have my suspicion that answer is no. So I will double their case numbers. They have about 50% rural population.
In that case the number of positives are same as Ireland. Which makes sense. And still vaccines does not seem to have an impact on protecting others.
Something else interesting. The Delta wave took much less time. Just over a month. Ireland is dragging Delta since Sept until now into Omicron.
@Colin Conlan: And to continue on the aspect that Delta wave took much less in Bulgaria. Number of deaths presented here as argument were per unit of time at peak. Since the Delta wave spanned on different lengths of time between Bulgaria and Ireland it is interesting to calculate the amount of deaths per wave rather than per time unit at peak.
@Colin Conlan: Delta was dragged out because vaccines were reducing infection rates, it reduced infections by 50 – 80% (Qatar data), but you are right, Omicron is transparent to vaccines.
At this point, now Omicron is dominant, Vaccines prevent serious symptoms and save lives but they no longer prevent infections getting passed on. That is why we are riddled, but have very few deaths (Omicron is also intrinsically milder).
So I agree you, at this point, vaccination no longer protects others, that benefit is no longer there e.g. if I’m vaccinated and visit an unvaccinated Bulgarian relative, I could infect them. Thankfully Omicron is mild (we’re very lucky, it could have gotten worse).
That said, Omicron arrived in Bulgaria only 2 weeks ago, this you can see from the huge spike they had since the new year.
Hopefully it will quickly displaces Delta and reduces deaths.
@Colin Conlan: Also, look at Gibraltar and COVID:
https://www.google.com/search?channel=crow5&client=firefox-b-d&q=gibratar+covid
100% fully vaccinated, 81% got boosters, but they are riddled with Omicron. But the important thing, no more deaths.
@David Jordan: Is not clear what argument you have there. Delta wave finished clearly in Bulgaria before Omicron arrived. There’s nothing to “displace” there.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=irl&areas=bgr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usvt&areasRegional=usnd&areasRegional=usky&areasRegional=usfl&areasRegional=usmi&cumulative=0&logScale=0&per100K=1&startDate=2020-08-01&values=cases
On 28th of Dec before Omicron rocketed number of cases, Bulgaria had 17.6/100k a day. Something that Ireland didn’t have since July.
@Colin Conlan: Yes, 2 weeks ago Omicron arrived. We’re not disagreeing here, deaths are falling despite rapidly rising cases, Omicron is milder and it likely heralds the end of the Pandemic. I’m not arguing with you.
I think if things don’t change, I mean if a worse variant does not show up, by next winter, I think it would be best if Omicron specific vaccines, possibly combined with the flu vaccine, are recommended for >65s, like the flu vaccine is today.
@Seán Ó Briain: have you shares in the vaccine or what? It’s their choice if they want to take it or not
Why is the title of this article misleading?
Protesters are anti-restrictions not anti-vaccine!
@Colin Conlan: False. They are anti everything. Anti-mask, anti-restrictions and anti-vaccine – despite having barely no one vaccinated and their hospitals full of covid patients with 100+ people dying every day there, despite their population being able the same as the island of Ireland.
Nothing misleading about the article.
@Seán Ó Briain: To protest anti-vaccine exceeds individual level. To protest against vaccine mandates does not exceed individual level. No one there protests that *other* citizens of Bulgaria should not be vaccinated.
Conclusion: they are not “anti-vaxxers” but anti restriction on personal level.
@Colin Conlan: They aren’t protesters either but rioters, once you turn violent you are no longer protesting, just look at the BLM riots.
Deep suspicion of anything coming from the Bulgarian government is a legacy of the soviet era, as well as the population’s sorry experience of government corruption since that time.
@John Mulligan: Agreed. I knew a Czech citizen whose conditioning was to distrust anything the Irish government, or any government said, but who would immediately accept any medical conspiracy theory they came across on YouTube, without doing any checking into the background of the YouTube speaker or channel, or anything they said. And their brother was a surgeon in the Czech Republic!!!! They didn’t put the same kind of faith in what their brother told them.
@David A. Murray: misinformation and suspicion is a major problem in Eastern Europe. Anti everything and pro nothing apart from conspiracy theory’s. Obviously not all of them but a large chunk of them. Victim complex across the whole region.
Bulgaria is a country many Irish people only know from going there for packaged summer holidays on chartered Balkan Airlines flights. Groups of schoolchildren and adults in winter also flew to the country for cheap ski holidays. Some of the country’s red wines have been found to be tasty and cheap. Before the early 1990s it was very much a conforming member of the Soviet bloc. What sort of regime rules there nowadays?
@Garreth Byrne: Since you are asking, there was 3 elections in 2021, and only after the last one there was a wide enough coalition to form a government. Basically, everybody who was against GERB, a populist party that ruled for 10 years, joined that coalition. GERB’s leader Boiko Borisov is a bit like Berlusconi, I think. No discernible policies apart from to make him and his chums rich.
Nuke em…
have your say