Daniel McConnell: How did the health minister land himself in the soup?

Fianna Fáil Health Spokesperson Stephen Donnelly. 

In normal times, a Taoiseach being asked does he have confidence in his health minister after just 103 days in office is a situation that would be unthinkable.

We are not in normal times, however.

On Thursday afternoon, Taoiseach Micheál Martin insisted he retains full confidence in the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly.

“I do, of course, have confidence in the health minister,” he said when asked during a press conference with the EU Council president Charles Michel in Dublin.

The Fianna Fáil leader made the comments ahead of Mr Donnelly making a statement to the Dáil late Thursday night to clarify his communications with the chief medical officer.

The “dreaded vote of confidence” as described in the Dáil by Labour’s Duncan Smith came amid growing confusion over what the Government was told by Nphet last weekend, and how that advice was subsequently leaked.

Given the calamity of events since last Sunday when the recommendation from the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) have brought a lot of criticism on Stephen Donnelly.

The fact that Mr Donnelly had had multiple conversations with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Tony Holohan throughout the course of the weekend undermined the established narrative that Nphet had sought to bounce the government into a level 5 situation.

It had brought Mr Donnelly’s judgement and performance into question and, as a result, he was forced to make a statement and take questions in the Dáil.

Earlier, with his visceral criticisms of Tony Holohan and Nphet on Monday night still ringing loudly, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar made clear that notwithstanding the conversations between Mr Donnelly and Dr Holohan, the recommendation to go to level 5 “came out of the blue”.

“Nobody in Government had any indication that consideration was being given to recommending a move to level 5 until Sunday. 

"This was confirmed by the CMO at last night's press conference. It was a shock, it did come out of the blue. We were not prepared for it nor was the country,” he said.

“To clarify and to be very clear, the Taoiseach, the leader of the Green Party and I were informed on Saturday that a meeting of Nphet had been called for Sunday. 

"There was no suggestion, not even an inkling, that level 5 was being contemplated. 

"Had we known that we would have sought an urgent briefing that night. That is what could, and should, have happened. 

The first indication I had that level 5 was being considered came on Sunday evening after the Nphet meeting had taken place. 

"I received confirmation in writing at 8.30pm setting out the recommendations and the reasons for them,” Mr Varadkar said.

When he did take to his feet in the Dáil, Mr Donnelly said he spoke to the CMO before Nphet on Sunday where Dr Holohan discussed the prospect of going to Level 4.

Such concerns were shared throughout Government, as revealed in a story I published at 6pm that evening about the possible move for the entire country to level 4.

However, he said it was not until 7pm on Sunday during a video call that he was informed that Nphet had decided to recommend level 5 restrictions.

Under some stinging criticism in the Dáil, Mr Donnelly said he didn't ring the CMO on Saturday.

He also said he did not know who leaked the letter recommending level 5 restrictions but did accept this leak "scared a lot of people".

While there are a number of gaps in the Government’s narrative and it was a somewhat unconvincing performance from Mr Donnelly, he will survive this controversy. 

But many will be asking is how he managed to land himself in the soup in the first place.