Stephen Donnelly launches scathing attack at party colleague amid criticism over Dubai trip

– Yesterday 13:28

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has launched a scathing attack on his party colleague John McGuinness for criticising his recent trip to Dubai for a health and wellness conference.

In an extraordinary rebuke by a minister of a backbench TD, Mr Donnelly brought up a more than decade old controversy involving Mr McGuinness seeking to bring his wife on a State visit when he was junior minister.

In January, Mr McGuinness was highly critical of Mr Donnelly and Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt for jetting off to Dubai amid a major controversy over mental health services in Kerry. There was also on-going political and public disquiet over Mr Watt’s €295,000 salary.

At the time, Mr McGuinness, who is chair of the Oireachtas Finance Committee, told the Irish Independent it “beggars belief” that both Mr Watt and Mr Donnelly are in Dubai in a week when the health service was engulfed in controversy.

When the Carlow Kilkenny TD’s criticism was put to Mr Donnelly on RTE Radio One’s Today with Claire Byrne, the minister said he will take “no lectures” from McGuinness.

“I note that John McGuinness when he was a junior minister flew to Dubai and Chicago and many other places and quoted Nietzsche I think at his line minister saying why family members should go with him so I won’t be taking any lectures from John McGuinness,” he said.

The minister said he wasn’t “sniping” at Mr McGuinness and added that he was one of eight ministers who went to the Dubai conference. “It was an important thing to do and it was unfortunate that john did what he did but I need to get on and focus on the work,” he added.

Mr Donnelly was referring to Mr McGuinness complaining in 2007 to then Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin that he could not bring his wife on State visits to Dubai and Canada.