An opposition TD has said the Taoiseach Michael Martin has questions to answer over his attendance at an indoor event in honour of his late father in what he alleges is a “serious” breach of health guidelines.
Mr Martin visited the Glen boxing club in Cork last December to present his father’s Paddy ‘The Champ’ Martin cup.
There were at least 12 people in attendance including officers from the club, the Cork County Boxing Board, the Cork Ex Boxers Association, the Cork Boxing Fraternity Association and special guest boxer Christina Desmond, who won the cup, and members of her family.
The 45-minute event went ahead under level three restrictions when all indoor gatherings were banned.
During photos and speeches at the event masks were not worn.
People Before Profit TD for Dublin South West Paul Murphy said: “It seems like the Taoiseach attended an indoor gathering during level three when indoor gatherings were explicitly not allowed.
“Either the rules apply for everybody or they don’t apply and you begin to undermine them.
“It certainly looks very serious to me. If there was some excuse that it was not an indoor gathering, for this reason or that reason, I’d like to hear it.
“It’s the exact same thing as the RTE presenters who had to apologise and the last I heard the Gardai were conducting a probe into it.”
A spokesperson for the Department of the Taoiseach said Mr Martin attended the event for work and it was not a personal event.
He added: “The Taoiseach visited a community boxing club at the invite of the Cork County Boxing Board, almost four months ago, on December 12, 2020.
“Ahead of the engagement, as standard, guidance was provided to the club, including limiting the number of attendees, social distancing and wearing of masks when not speaking or in photos.”
But Mr Murphy said the fact it was work did not change the “character of the event.”
He added: “It’s not like it’s a socially distanced meeting in the Taoiseach’s office or something like that.
“He’s going to a publicly organised, indoor gathering so I don’t think that changes the character of the event.
“In that case could the people who went to Golfgate say ‘well this is part of our work, we have to be talk to these people etc’.
“We need to see some explanation or reason because what’s been said so far doesn’t change the character of the event, which would have been an event outside the regulations and for the Taoiseach to be attending something like that obviously sends completely the wrong message.”
A Garda spokesperson said: “The Taoiseach visited a community boxing club in a work capacity on December 12, 2020.
“An Garda Síochána are not conducting an investigation into this matter."
