Pressure on Buttimer to resign Seanad seat after he apologises for his attendance at golf event

Senator Jerry Buttimer is under pressure over his attendance at the event in Clifden. 

Pressure is mounting on Fine Gael Senator Jerry Buttimer to resign his Seanad seat after he was stripped of the party whip just hours after resigning as Leas-Chathaoirleach of the Seanad.

Against an unprecedented wave of public anger, members of his own party called on him and others in public office who attended the golf function, to consider their positions.

Former Lord Mayor of Cork, Fine Gael Cllr Des Cahill, said: “Any politician who attended this dinner is simply not fit to hold any public office."

He urged the Tanaiste to go further than removing the party whip.

“This was much more than an error of judgement. To preserve the reputation of our party I feel that sterner action is required swiftly,” Mr Cahill said.

Seanad leader, Fine Gael’s Regina Doherty, criticised all who attended the function and said it doesn’t matter how the hotel rooms were split to facilitate the function.

“Who cares? Who thought it was OK to have a hooley of a golf society when people cannot attend family functions, christenings, weddings, they can’t even attend the funerals of their friends and family. It is a gross and stunning misreading of public mood. We expect more from leaders and we should expect more from leaders,” she told Today with Sarah McInerney on RTÉ Radio One.

Mr Buttimer’s constituency colleague, Public Expenditure Minister, Fianna Fáil’s Michael McGrath, apologised to the public.

“This event should not have taken place. Obviously those who attended should never have attended,” he told the Opinion Line on Cork’s 96fm.

“The public will have made sacrifices, people not able to attend funerals of loved ones, weddings cancelled, holidays booked, people have lost a lot of money, people have lost jobs, and people have paid a very high price in contributing to the national effort to fight this terrible disease and so anything that undermines the government message at the attempt to win the public health argument, in what is a really tough battle against Covid-19, is very damaging,” he said.

In his resignation letter, Mr Buttimer said his attendance at the dinner event had compromised the government at a time when people are doing their best to keep all safe during the global pandemic.

My letter to Cathaoirleach of the Seanad @SenatorMarkDaly pic.twitter.com/m0hCqyZJC8

— Jerry Buttimer TD (@jerrybuttimer) August 21, 2020

“It was an unintended but serious lapse of judgement to attend the event,” he said.

“I apologise unreservedly for my actions this week. For the last six months this country has come and worked together to defeat Covid-19.

“It is an ongoing battle and our collective society response is important and our individual actions matter. I wish everyone every success in this fight.” 

Mr Buttimer, 53, was first elected to Cork City Council in 2004. He ran unsuccessfully in Cork South Central in the 2007 general election, and was later elected to the Seanad from 2007 to 2011.

He won a Dáil seat in 2011 and in April 2012, he became the first Fine Gael TD to come out as gay. He went on to chair FG's new LGBT group.

He told the Irish Examiner at the time: "I’m a politician, I’m a gay person, it’s a part of me, it is not who I am."