Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, the Department of Foreign Affairs published its internal review of what it calls workplace arrangements in Iveagh House, a euphemism for champagne-gate on 17 June. This was a time when many people were not able to attend funerals of loved ones and thousands of people received fines for either organising or attending social gatherings in breach of the regulations in place at the time, and this report is a whitewash from start to finish. The narrative is the idea of it being an impromptu event, but the review cannot therefore explain why at least two members of staff were present at the social event who were not scheduled to come to work that day.

Most glaring, it is a whitewash for the Minister responsible, namely, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Coveney. The review did not even question or interview him about, for example, what he experienced when he went there. He was there about one hour and a half after the champagne corks had been popped, when clearly a social event of sorts was still continuing. As for what he did about it, he clearly did nothing. He was not interviewed in his capacity as the Minister responsible, with whom, ultimately, the buck has to stop.

Has the Taoiseach spoken to the Minister about why he deleted at least one text message from his phone - this is not the first time we have heard of that - about this party? Most important, will the Taoiseach please agree the Minister needs to come before the Dáil and answer questions about this, or is he going to collude in a cover-up?

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