Daniel McConnell: What exactly is the Government's position on Big Phil?

News of the Garda stoppage emerged on Sunday evening raised further issues and concerns around EU commissioner Phil Hogan. Picture: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

After a weekend of tumult surrounding our political class, one wondered if Monday would see the drama continue.

We didn’t have to wait long. Housing minister Darragh O’Brien upped the ante by saying that the Government does not have confidence in EU commissioner Phil Hogan and that he should resign.

Asked on Newstalk Breakfast if the Government had confidence in Mr Hogan, Mr O’Brien simply said: “No”.

He said the commissioner had to be “really clear about his whereabouts and his actions over that period of time, the drip-feed of information is less than helpful, I still don't think he understands how angry people are about this, and rightly so.

“This event should never have happened, but it did happen, he shouldn't have attended, he showed really poor judgement at the very least to attend the event.

"The fact that the first apology was a non-apology, then when the Taoiseach and Tánaiste pressed him further there was a more fulsome one, but then we get details of trips to Kildare, a stop-off in Kildare, we don't know the full details of it.”

Mr O’Brien added that the Taoiseach and Tánaiste had been pretty clear when they asked the commissioner to consider his position that “he should still do that.

“All of us understand he is an EU commissioner, it's not in the competence of the Government to hire or indeed fire, that's something that is up to Ursula von der Leyen. 

It really is a saga that is dragging on. It's damaging. He's been a good commissioner, there is no question about that.

It seemed the Government was turning up the heat and seeking to force the hand of European Commission president Ursula van der Leyen who is the sole person with the power to seek Mr Hogan’s resignation.

A short while later, foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney piled in, saying that Mr Hogan must account for himself.

Mr Coveney said that if the commissioner could not adequately explain his movements in to and out of Kildare, his position will be "in difficulty". 

In an interview with The Opinion Line on Cork's 96FM, Mr Coveney said whilst he was "furious" about what occurred in Galway, he would like to read Mr Hogan's explanations of why he was in and out of Kildare.

Texts from other ministers made it seem that Mr Hogan’s time was up.

The decision to leave Kildare — a county in lockdown — to attend a golf hooley, represents a clear breach of the rules, and golf is not an essential reason to go anywhere, they said.

The message was that such a breach, if proven, would mean the end of Mr Hogan.

But then Taoiseach Micheál Martin only confused matters when he took to the airwaves as Claire Byrne’s first guest.

He stopped well short of calling on Mr Hogan to resign, as his own housing minister had done just two hours previously.

What the hell was going on?

It was not the Taoiseach’s best interview, to put it mildly.

“It was a disaster,” said one minister. “I was struggling to understand what the Government position on Big Phil was, and I am in Cabinet,” the minister added.

Now it would be unfathomable that Darragh O’Brien went out and spoke so explicitly without the approval of his leader or his top officials.

Several ministers confirmed this view that Mr O’Brien would not have gone on a solo run.

But why then the mixed signals for the second time in 72 hours?

On Saturday, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste in their joint statement called on Mr Hogan to consider his position and for him to fully account for his actions.

By Sunday lunchtime, Mr Hogan had issued his “fulsome apology” and Leo Varadkar appeared to be appeased.

But then news of the Garda stoppage emerged on Sunday evening, which raised further issues and concerns.

Why did the Taoiseach simply not back up the view of his housing minister?

What happens if the EU Commission president merely ignores the concerns of the Irish Government and allows Mr Hogan to remain?

Surely, having pressed the nuclear button, both Mr Martin and Mr Varadkar and their already shaky Government will be further undermined.

If the Taoiseach and his Government sought to bring finality to this matter on Monday, they failed disastrously and served only to confuse matters even further.