The Chair of the Oireachtas Covid-19 committee has defended Failte Ireland’s former chairman for holidaying in Italy - despite him pleading with Irish to take staycations.
Independent TD for Co Clare Michael McNamara claims we were entering a period of “hysteria” and questioned the “scientific evidence” behind pubs being kept shut and the lockdown in Kildare, Laois and Offaly.
Michael Cawley resigned as chairman of Failte Ireland over the weekend after it emerged that he was on a family holiday in Italy despite the Tourism company he worked for encouraging the public to holiday in Ireland.
Mr McNarama, who chairs the Dail’s Covid-19 Oireachtas Committee said: “It’s very unclear to me whether he breached the travel advice or whether he didn’t because towards the end of the travel advice.
“It appears to me that he didn’t breach the travel advice.
“If he was from any other member state of the European Union nobody would call into question his going to Italy.
“We’re entering into a state of hysteria because of cases arising in Ireland, as they are elsewhere in Europe, but thankfully hospitalisations and deaths are not rising
“I didn’t hear Michael Cawley giving out travel advice to anybody, nor was he giving out medical advice to anybody.
“When we seek to replace him are we now going to put into the job advert that you must account for your movements at the time of covid to know you didn’t go abroad?”
Mr McNamara said the government had shut down the aviation sector and decisions made were producing “very little gain.”
He said he sees “no scientific or evidential basis of what is being done” to pubs who have been told to stay shut or the decision to lockdown Kildare, Laois and Offaly.
However, Mr McNamara told RTE Radio One that he was not suggesting pubs should break the law and reopen.
Fine Gael TD Colm Burke who is also on the same Oireachtas Covid-19 Committee said he did not agree with Mr McNamara’s comments regarding Mr Cawley.
He told the Irish Mirror: “He made his comments as a public representative, not as chair of the committee and in my view I think he has been very fair as chairperson of the committee.
“But I don’t agree with the comments that he did make because I think the whole idea of Failte Ireland was to sell the idea that businesses in Ireland are going through a difficult time and we should give support to them here at home.
“I think you can’t come along and send a message to the general public and then do the exact opposite yourself.
“What he [Mr Cawley] did was not wrong but it doesn’t help the organisation in trying to sell a message.”
