Former judge says golfgate 'beggars belief' but 'this has been going on for years'

Tue, 25 Aug, 2020 - 10:55

Vivienne Clarke

Retired judge Gillian Hussey has said that she was astounded that any golf function, and in particular the Oireachtas Golf Society function, had taken place during a pandemic.

“It beggars belief but it doesn’t surprise me,” she told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.

“Nothing changes, this has been going on for years. We all bear responsibility for this, we vote these people in. These politicians were not voted into government.”

Ms Hussey acknowledged that her appointment as a judge had been a political one, but she said: “The minute I was appointed I distanced myself from the political scene.

Personally I don’t know any politicians. I’ve kept well away from them and from reporters.

Ms Hussey said she would not have attended such a function.

There was nothing wrong with the event as such, she said, because the attendees were not going to be talking about things they should not be talking about.

It was funny that politicians “have gotten so worked up about this” she said of the presence of Supreme Court judge Seamus Wolfe at the event.

“The situation hasn’t changed, it’s been like this for years.” Ms Hussey said that bringing in former Chief Justice Susan Denham to conduct a review of the situation was “the way to go.”

When she was a judge she said she had to be very careful when out socialising. She had "watered" many hotel plants with drinks she did not want, she said.

If she had been stopped by gardaí and breathalysed she would have had to resign as she could not sit in judgement in a drink driving case after that.

Earlier this year when recovering from a hip operation which required her to take regular walks she had instead cocooned as she did not want anyone to think that she felt she was above the law.

Making that decision had impacted on the recovery “of my 83-year-old legs.”

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