“While I am honored to have been appointed by the Government to be the Special Envoy on Freedom of Opinion and Expression, it is clear that criticism of the appointment process has impacted the legitimacy of the role itself. It is my conviction that a special envoy role can only be of real value to Ireland and to the global community if the appointment is acceptable to all parties. For this reason, I have decided not to accept this appointment, and I have communicated my decision to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.”
Minister Simon Coveney responded: “I note the statement from Dr Katherine Zappone stating she will not now take up a special envoy position. I understand her decision and thank her for being willing to work on Ireland’s human rights priorities. For my part, I accept that mistakes were made in how this appointment was brought to Government and lessons will be learnt from that.”
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said: “Now we need accountability from Government for the lack of process/ procedure in this attempted appointment. The guest list for the Merrion Hotel function must also be made public. The days of funding jobs for the boys and girls on the inside track with taxpayers’ money must come to an end.”
Mr Byrne said: “At a time when the vaccination programme is going well, we’re looking at big investments in housing and infrastructure and education, and then suddenly, this story emerges on the scene. So from within the party, there’s a lot of annoyance.”
The problem here was that would the hotel itself get into trouble for letting this happen or did the hotel follow all the protocols for this gathering. The Merrion Hotel released a statement quoting “At all times since the start of the pandemic, we have adhered to government public health measures, including the relevant guidelines that were in place at the time of the event you reference on July 21st. These have since been updated on July 23rd. Government regulations at the time allowed for outdoor events of up to 200 people, and the definition of that includes social events. This upper limit still applies, except now indoor events in hotels are excluded per government guidelines published by Fáilte Ireland.”
