Waterford senator John Cummins breaks silence on Golfgate dinner

Senator John Cummins 

Waterford Senator John Cummins has broken his silence on attending the infamous Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in Galway.

The Fine Gael politician apologised profusely and repeatedly on WLR’s Déise Today show but said he would not resign his seat.

The senator told presenter Damien Tiernan that, having considered resigning, he favoured “making up for my mistakes rather than walking away from them”.

He was determined to “regain the trust of the people of Waterford” who he has served as a politician for 11 years.

Mr Cummins said he had travelled to Clifden from Dublin with a friend a day previous to play golf. They had “ironically travelled separately to abide by the guidelines”.

He had not given the dinner much thought, he said, but “should have seen it for what it was” when entering the hotel. “I should not have been so stupid”, he conceded.

The interviewee, who has had the party whip removed, said he “honestly has no answer to give” as to why he stayed on, but denied it was to ingratiate himself with others.

He had attended a room of about 30 people but only realised how many and who were actually present when a partition was pulled back to facilitate Agriculture Minister Dara Calleary’s speech.

He fully accepted responsibility for causing distress and anger through what Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Feargháil has labelled “crass stupidity” and for which he sincerely apologised.

Mr Cummins had ‘gone to ground’ since the incident emerged, not from any advice to do so, he said, but because he was struggling to cope.

He declined to elaborate on personal and social media abuse received, but said the entire affair has knocked him and his family “for six". It will “live with me probably for the rest of my life”, he said.

He hopes people will ultimately judge him on his future actions rather than the past.

In a mixed reaction, many listeners expressed sympathy, while others dismissed his responses as “crocodile tears”.