'Details are important': EC president seeks further clarifications from Phil Hogan

European Commission president German Ursula von der Leyen has requested further clarifications from Phil Hogan after he submitted a full report to her regarding his complience with coronavirus restrictions. Picture: Jean-Francois Badias/AP

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is investigating the circumstances surrounding EU commissioner Phil Hogan's attendance at a controversial golf event.

A spokeswoman for the president said Mr Hogan, the EU's trade commissioner, had given an account of his actions to the president, but she had requested further clarification from him.

European Commission spokesman Dana Spinant told reporters: "This is a matter which requires careful assessment on our side.

"It is a matter where details count, therefore the president has requested Commissioner Hogan to provide a full report covering the matters ... the president has received such a report from Commissioner Hogan last night."

She added: "The president has requested further clarifications because details are important, and she wishes to have them."

Ms Spinant said there were "moral aspects" involved in the need to follow coronavirus rules, as well as legal ones.

"We feel for the people of Ireland who, like many other people and communities in the European Union over the past months, had to go through difficult times to comply with strict regulations in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus," she said. "Many have lost loved ones, many others have been ill, and others have suffered from the restrictions.

"So this is why it is important that rules are respected. This is a matter not just of respecting the rules, but this is also a matter of public health. 

There are legal aspects involved, and there are moral aspects involved as well.

It has also emerged that Mr Hogan was stopped by gardaí while driving in Kildare on August 17 for using his mobile phone. Ms Spinant said traffic offences were matters for the local authorities.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that he made his anger very clear to Mr Hogan about his attendance at the Oireachtas Golf Society event in Clifden.

Mr Martin also said that the event should never have happened. Mr Martin said he had asked Mr Hogan to consider his position over the weekend. Of even more concern to him, he said, was if the commissioner had breached Covid restrictions in Kildare. 

“The public need to know that restrictions in Kildare were not breached,” he said.

Mr Martin said he had received a call from justice minister Helen McEntee to inform him that Mr Hogan had been stopped by gardaí for using a mobile phone while he was driving in Kildare.

This was of concern to him and the Tánaiste, he said, as this information was not in accordance with what Mr Hogan had initially said about being in Kildare. Mr Martin said that given there was a discrepancy between Mr Hogan's statements, he needed to know that the restrictions in Kildare were not breached. Both he and the Tánaiste had asked the Garda Commissioner for full details on the incident.

Mr Martin said that he would like to see a “very comprehensive statement” from Mr Hogan to fully explain his position around the restrictions in Kildare. 

“We are holding a light on the anger of the Irish people to what they regard as an unacceptable breach of the guidelines by people in office,” he said.