In a Tale of Two Cities, two days ago saw the publication in London of the damning Sue Gray Report in all likelihood ending the Premiership of Boris Johnson, whilst in Dublin the whitewash DFA Review of its own misconduct made sure to exonerate Simon Coveney of even association with any wrongdoing. The contrast could not be greater. Boris Johnson is rightly being damned for wanton breach of his own draconian Covid laws, which he has prosecuted his fellow countrymen for failing to adequately follow.
Meanwhile, the DFA investigation of itself makes sure to pin the blame for the supposed ‘momentary lapse into selfies and champagne’ upon a former civil servant, currently living it up on a six-figure salary courtest of the taxpayers in Paris as Ireland’s Ambassador to la République. Boris Johnson will likely lose the office he has craved his entire career, and may even be prosecuted, whereas Simon Coveney has been absolved of any responsibility and the offending ex-Civil Servants asked to make a small contribution to charity. The contrast could not be greater.
Throughout Covid-19, the Irish government has been hostile to any form of scrutiny or investigation of their actions throughout the pandemic. Be it #ZapponeGate, or the thousands of deaths in nursing homes, to the DFA Champagne bash, this government has opposed as vigorously as possible opposition oversight. When a ‘concession’ to scrutiny must be made, the review is always kept under tight government control and parameters to mitigate the political fallout.
The DFA Champagne bash actually occurred over 18 months ago. The Minister felt no need to investigate the incident or take any actions until pressured to over a year later. Then after significant pressure, the Minister concedes to an investigation. However, that investigation is going to be carried out by the current Secretary General of the Department of Foreign Affairs into the actions of his new colleagues. In other words, the DFA is charged with investigating itself… This is an event which involved 20 officials of the DFA. There are also serious questions over what the Minister knew, when he knew it and his involvement. Contrary to government spin, the event was not impromptu but pre-planned. The Minister was there on the night in question – the details of which remain shrouded in mystery. This was an illegal event in conscious breach of the government’s own laws, by (including some very well paid) employees of the state. The ramifications of this report’s findings could have spelled the end of a few careers and led to criminal prosecution. This event deserved more than an internal review by a current employee of the Department that was over and done with in little over two weeks.
Yet inexplicably, the report published yesterday did not interview Simon Coveney once. How are we to trust a report into that gathering when the investigation never bothered to interview the Minister in charge of the Department even once? This boldly sidesteps the question of Simon Coveney’s involvement and knowledge, whilst purporting to be a comprehensive investigation into the illegal gathering. The absurd methodology of the investigation seeks to both have the Minister’s cake and eat it. As best put by Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín TD:
“…the report pins the blame on ‘the ex-Secretary General, now the Ambassador to France, for a momentary lapse in judgement, who put everyone else in an awkward position, for an event which was really only 1 minute long, consisting of a photograph and champagne but which everyone went back to work after…’”
So the overall conclusion seems to be that the event was really a mirage, that really didn’t occur, but that responsibility for the mirage if you believe it did occur lies squarely on the shoulders of a man no longer accountable. Coveney could not have asked for a more favourable report, than if he’d written it himself.
Simon Coveney is an experienced politician who has deftly managed this whole affair to ensure his own political survival. A Minister since 2011, and a TD or MEP since 1998. He has displayed his ability to dodge scandal after scandal, be it #ZapponeGate, his conflict with the women of honour, or his degradation of the Defence Forces. Nowhere was this more on display than Morning Ireland, where he expertly dodged the question of whether he had made mistake with the non-answer of “I accept that certainly with the benefit of hindsight, knowing what I know now, if I had known it then…” Sir Humphrey Appleby would have struggled to best that corker.
However, what does it say that Simon Coveney can lurch from scandal to scandal with no real prospect of losing his job, yet Boris Johnson is in the final days of his premiership for his own scandals? Coveney presided over a Department who held an illegal champagne party in the height of lockdown, whilst there were caps on a numbers allowed at funerals, and would never have taken any action save for political pressure. There is a disparate standard of accountability here, between London and Dublin. In London, a Prime Minister is being punished for his unjust laws and for failing to follow his unjust laws. In Dublin, the message is one of: we were not ever all in this together.