Defence Minister Simon Coveney spent all last week obsessing over a conflict halfway across the world that most people couldn’t find on a map. Meanwhile, our own country was rocked by massive cyber attacks, and he’s been notably less vocal.
Although Coveney supposedly fills the role, you’d be forgiven for thinking that we had nobody defending the country at all. Last week, both the HSE and the Department of Health were hit by massive ransomware cyber attacks – believed to be carried out by international criminals from eastern Europe – which “significantly compromised” those organisations’ IT systems.
Dept of Health suffers ransomware attack as HSE system ‘significantly compromised’ https://t.co/d9UfGNQWL9
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) May 16, 2021
Now, it’s hard to overstate how serious this is. Now not only is the Irish State being extorted for tens of millions of euros by foreign gangsters, but thousands of hospital appointments have been cancelled into next week, and it’s unclear when access to the systems will be regained. Whether or not we even pay the ransom, HSE CEO Paul Reid has said that repairing the systems will likely cost tens of millions in and of itself.
Cyberattack on HSE will cost ‘tens of millions’ to fix, Paul Reid says https://t.co/mO6uQlITdT
— The Irish Times (@IrishTimes) May 17, 2021
Additionally, the hackers have threatened to publish Irish people’s stolen medical and patient info, which could lead to a surge in scams, further hacks and even blackmail of individuals. This has had a major impact on Irish citizens.
Govt now says the HSE hackers may follow through with threat to share medical records.
What’s the worst that could happen? Could the likes of insurers sneakily take note of them too? (Even though they’d be legally slaughtered if they did)https://t.co/NJ04i4SAmf
— Adrian Weckler (@adrianweckler) May 17, 2021
To top it all off, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has admitted that attacks like this on the Irish State are “commonplace” and happen on a regular basis, despite the country’s main cybersecurity role being unfilled for over a year due to low pay.
According to Communications Minister Eamon Ryan, cyber attacks on the Irish State are “commonplace” and happen on a regular basis, despite the country's main cybersecurity role being unfilled for over a year due to low pay.#gripthttps://t.co/5PPt5Wj8ug
— gript (@griptmedia) May 17, 2021
In other words, Ireland is under attack. And when you’re under attack, you kind of wish you had a defender – say, a highly-paid Minister for Defence – who would come to your aid in your hour of need.
Unfortunately for us, however, the Minister for Defence Simon Coveney has been a little bit preoccupied lately, going on and on about a conflict which is literally 5,704 kilometres away in the middle east and does not involve us in any way, shape or form. He’s only begun talking about the cyber attack in the last 24 hours, after days of radio silence.
Now, since the start of the recent violence between Israel and Palestine, many people have had strong emotional reactions on both sides, which is, of course, perfectly fine and legitimate. It’s a part of the world that many people feel heavily invested in for various reasons, and we’re all allowed to give our opinions on global events. There’s nothing at all wrong with that.
With that being said, it seems curious that Irish leaders are so utterly consumed by this issue on either side, to the point where individuals like Simon Coveney appear to be almost obsessed – even at the expense of doing their own job, watching Ireland be attacked right under their noses.
“But Ben,” you might say. “Speaking on these issues is Coveney’s job – he’s also the Minister for Foreign Affairs as well as the Defence Minister. He has to take an interest in global events.”
However, this is to fundamentally misunderstand the role of foreign affairs.
The job of Foreign Affairs Minister is to interact with other countries on our behalf as they relate to Ireland and Irish issues. Not to stick his or her nose into every single event that happens around the world. The Irish public pays Coveney to look after our needs – not the needs of the entire planet earth.
If Coveney was doing his job as Foreign Affairs Minister, for example, we wouldn’t be seeing headlines like this from December 2020, about Irishman Richard O’Halloran who was detained by the Chinese Communist State and prevented from returning home:
“Family Of Irish man held in China: “Nobody is helping us – we are just begging for help”
“Last week, Mrs O’Halloran” – the man’s wife – “said her mood jumped when she learned Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney was to speak to his Chinese counterpart, believing that the call would be about resolving her husband’s situation. However, she says no further information had emerged during the call.
“Richard’s name came up during the conversation but the Minister didn’t press him for any details and it appears he got no information about the situation. I was pinning all my hopes on that call as I was led to understand this would be a huge break in the case.”
Please RT & ❤️ Richard is held – unnecessarily & cruelly in China for 2 years now – His children are suffering – Please get him home for Christmas @LeoVaradkar Family of Irish man held in China: ‘Nobody is helping us – we are just begging for help’ https://t.co/guIy3nnhi5
— Dr Tom Clonan (@TomClonan) December 5, 2020
The family went on to describe how the man’s physical and mental health were deteriorating – how he had had a seizure while in China, and how his wife and children were having to go through the covid-19 pandemic and lockdown back in Ireland alone without a husband or father.
Fianna Fáil MEP, Barry Andrews, called the event an “outrageous breach of human rights.”
Barry Andrews: Richard O'Halloran and China's handling of such cases should not be ignored https://t.co/NJYCI1v9Pw
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) March 3, 2021
If Coveney was to be serious about his job as Minister for Foreign Affairs, this is exactly the kind of issue he would be laser focused on from the start – saving Irish citizens from the clutches of a foreign authoritarian regime and vigorously advocating on their behalf on the international stage.
Apparently Simon is so outraged about what’s happening in the middle east, that he can demand that the Israeli ambassador be dragged in front of him to explain his country’s actions against another country – but he can’t muster the same strength against China when they detain an Irish citizen.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has summoned the Israeli ambassador to Ireland to a meeting later today to discuss the ongoing violence in Jerusalem and Gaza.
— Hugh O'Connell (@oconnellhugh) May 11, 2021
Let me hasten to add that I am not defending Israel here – nor am I defending Palestine. I have no stance on the conflict, because frankly Ireland has bigger fish to fry. I’m asking people to look at the big picture and see Coveney’s words for what they are – a virtue-signalling distraction from his own government’s incompetence.
To give you an idea of this, Coveney has tweeted about the Israel/Palestine conflict at least 13 times in the past week. He tweeted about O’Halloran’s case precisely zero times – to say he was “less vocal” about the latter issue would be an understatement.
It’s not about the size of the crisis either, or the innocence of the victims. For example, according to UNICEF, the ongoing civil conflict currently happening in Yemen is the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world”, with more than 24 million people, or 80% of the population, in need of serious humanitarian assistance, including over 12 million children.
To date, 130,000 people have died in that war, with children comprising 25% of the civilian losses.
Al Jazeera English: "Children 25% of civilian casualties in Yemen: Relief agency" https://t.co/K65b91OqeF
— Evan Kohlmann (@IntelTweet) March 23, 2021
In 2017 and 2018 Coveney tweeted about that situation twice, and has not mentioned it again in the past 3 years despite millions of children still at risk. Which goes to show that these outbursts about one conflict or another seem to be calculated and cherry-picked by politicians based on political expediency – not the actual severity of the crisis.
One wonders how much of this has to do with Ireland now having a hard-won seat on the UN Security Council – a seat which Coveney pushed aggressively for – threatening Irish neutrality and forcing us into speaking about these contentious issues and needlessly making enemies for ourselves.
Ireland's campaign for a seat on the United Nations Security Council comes to a head today as 193 @UN countries vote. Really proud of our team @dfatirl @irishmissionun #IrelandUNSC https://t.co/doQBvII9iS via @YouTube
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) June 17, 2020
In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Coveney was trolling the general public with some of his recent tweets – the man had the audacity to state that “The right to peaceful freedom of assembly is non-negotiable” in response to Israeli security services breaking up a Muslim religious gathering.
Evictions & threatened evictions in Sheikh Jarrah & Silwan, & the brutal response of Israeli security services to protests in Al Aqsa compound, is unacceptable. The right to peaceful freedom of assembly is non-negotiable. Violence & incitement must end. https://t.co/mZ9OiPtmTM
— Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) May 10, 2021
Apparently breaking up religious gatherings is “unacceptable” and peaceful free assembly is “non-negotiable” – except when it’s the Gardaí doing it at the behest of Coveney’s government. This man has some neck. Religious rights of citizens in other countries abroad are not negotiable, but Irish people’s rights are.
Ireland is a small, neutral country with a miniscule military. More importantly, we’re a country with a crippling housing crisis, health crisis, homeless crisis, debt crisis, an economy destroyed by government lockdown, surging violent crime rates, surging drug addiction, surging STIs, border control non-existent, agitation and rumbling conflict in Northern Ireland…the list goes on and on.
We’re facing at least a dozen existential threats, and Irish leaders want to talk about Palestine, Israel, Donald Trump – anything except the actual home-grown crises that they created, and could potentially help to fix.
I’ve no stance on Israel versus Palestine, because Ireland is up to its neck in major issues of its own, & it’s unwise to stick our oar into complex battles far away that don’t involve us. If leaders like Simon Coveney felt the same, maybe this country wouldn’t be crumbling before our eyes.