Chief Medical Officer: ‘Clifden dinner should not have taken place’

The Acting Chief Medical Officer has said the controversial Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in a Clifden hotel “should not have taken place”.

Dr Ronan Glynn was speaking this evening about the event in the Station House Hotel on Wednesday night, which was attended by 81 people – including Galway West TD Noel Grealish.

“It seems very clear from what I know about the event that it was not in line with public health guidance and therefore, it should not have taken place. Hence similar events should not take place in the future.

“We’ve come too far in this country and too many people have sacrificed too much for us to be veered off course at this point. We’ve seen that happen in other jurisdictions and we cannot let this happen here.

“A fundamental and key part of our success in this country to date has been solidarity and a sense of fairness and I would urge people to focus on what they can still do individually to protect themselves, their families and their loved ones.

“There is a very justifiable and understandable anger in Ireland today. It’s not misplaced. What I will also say is that the virus couldn’t care less about anger. It’s only waiting for an opportunity for anger and complacency to trip us up as a community and stop adhering to public health advice,” said Dr Glynn.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said the holding of the dinner – in a room with an opened ‘partition’ – was “inexcusable”.

“What happened in Galway was wrong. It is inexcusable. There are people all over this country who have made huge sacrifices and who continue to make huge sacrifices and at a minimum, the Irish people need to see those rules followed by members of the Oireachtas. It simply shouldn’t have happened.

“It was flat out wrong. It sent out entirely the wrong message. The two most senior Oireachtas members rightly resigned their positions. We are in this together. All of the people involved have apologised. What they did was wrong, it was inexcusable.

“What happened sends out the wrong message to every man and woman in this country who has made so many sacrifices. What happened undermines solidarity and therefore undermines public health,” said Minister Donnelly.