Responding to the latest #ZapponeGate revelations, Aontú Leader & Meath West TD Peadar Tóibín has said that the position of the Tánaiste Leo Varadkar is untenable. He stated

An Teachta Tóibín: “For weeks now the country is being subjected to a surreal drip feed of excuses, contradictions, qualifications and outright untruths by the people who are supposed to be running this country. It’s clear that #Zapponegate is where cronyism, entitlement and incompetence meet”.

“Its as obvious as the day is long that that a job was create for Katherine Zappone. Its clear from the Tánaiste’s text messages that Katherine Zappone was actively lobbying for the job. Its clear that being a friend of people in power put Zappone in this position.  Having the personal mobile phone numbers of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs, using the pet name piglet, inviting prospective employers to parties should not be the qualifications necessary for any job, never mind a state job. The fact that Zappone was the only candidate for the jobs shows that this is a textbook example of “who you know and not what you know”.  

“Simon Coveney has now claimed he deleted texts (which could have been made subject to FOI requests). He tells us without details that his phone was hacked. This despite that fact that these texts are government records and must be saved securely. Leo Varadkar states that he was on holiday and staff have moved on and the Taoiseach states that the business of government is not done by text”.

“The Taoiseach was not told of the appointment in advance. The Tánaiste changes his story about when he knew. And the Minister’s for Foreign Affairs statement that Zappone did not lobby holds no water when we know she is direct contact with the decision makers before the decision was made”.  

“All this comes on the back of some the most senior members of government not adhering to the understood Covid Guidelines at the Merrion Hotel, changing the guidelines retrospectively to save their blushes and pushing the Attorney General out to save face. There has also been a high level leak at Cabinet level. We the people are entitled to know what is the status of the Tánaiste’s investigation into this leak”.  

“There are enormous political consequences to this. This is Laurel and Hardy incompetency.  It is the actions of a fiasco factory. How can anyone have confidence in this government in running the country. Its clear that the energy of the government is focused on firefighting this crisis and not the housing crisis, the health crisis or the reopening of the country as it should be. It also shows a massive imbalance between FF and FG in this coalition. It seems FF Minister are expendable but FG Ministers are not.  At its heart is the casual cronyism and entitlement of an inner elite in Irish society. It was the opposite of a transparent meritocracy. Its rotten & unless there is accountability it won’t end. Leo Varadkar must at this stage consider his position”.