Leo Varadkar knew report into champagne party was being considered when he called for further investigation

18th Janaury 2022

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Tánaiste Leo Varadkar knew a report into the Department for Foreign Affairs champagne party was being considered when he called for the controversy to be investigated further.

During what is being described as a ‘car crash’ interview on RTE Radio One’s This Week, Mr Varadkar suggested the party should be investigated when he was asked numerous questions about the long running controversy.

However, the Fine Gael leader did not reveal that Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney had ordered his secretary general to launch an investigation into the Iveagh House party.

Mr Coveney also did not reveal details of the investigation when he appeared on RTE Radio One the day after he asked for the report to be compiled.

Mr Varadkar’s spokesperson said: “The Tánaiste was aware that commissioning a report was under consideration but that a formal decision hadn’t been announced yet, so he felt it better to leave the announcement to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

Meanwhile, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said an “in-house review by a hand-selected civil servant” is not enough to address the breach of Covid-19 restrictions. The complaint was put to Mr Coveney’s side for response.

Mr Murphy said: “We have seen how Boris Johnson has used a similar process in the UK to try dodge awkward questions.

“Now it seems the Irish Government is copying from his playbook.”

The request was made last Thursday after the Irish Independent highlighted remarks on the affair by Fine Gael party chairman, former minister Richard Bruton.

The department has already apologised for the gathering, at which glasses of Moët & Chandon champagne were raised to toast Ireland’s success in winning a UN Security Council seat after a long lobbying campaign.

Mr Murphy said Minister Coveney should come before the Dáil to answer questions about the champagne party, and more particularly, “why he failed to do anything about it, despite his knowledge of it.”

He said: “We also need to know what exactly was going on when he attended the office and spent time with the staff seemingly at around 11pm that night.

“Is he seriously claiming that the party had ended and they were all just working away at 11pm at night?”

Mr Murphy said an estimated timeline showed Minister Coveney tweeted at 9.23pm to welcome the result.

Three minutes later a tweet was sent by his Secretary General, Niall Burgess — he has since been made Ambassador to France — with the picture of celebrations among closely-gathered staff.

Mr Coveney visited the department an hour and 45 minutes later. “That would make it around 11:10pm,” Mr Murphy said.

Minister Coveney has said: “I was told, I think, later on that evening that a photograph was tweeted out and it was later on, I think late that evening, after midnight, it was taken down.”

But he said he had also been quoted: “I did not see the Covid breach from the earlier photograph and I was thanking our officials in their workplace on a workday for the work they had done on behalf of the State.

“After 10 minutes I returned to my office in Iveagh House to prepare for a call with the Norwegian foreign minister and for ongoing briefings on the coalition government negotiations.”

Mr Coveney has instructed his new Secretary General, Joe Hackett, to compile a report on the controversy sparked by a photograph.

It would be up to gardaí to determine if it was an illegal gathering, at a time when only six people were allowed attend an indoor social event.