Taoiseach to chair Cabinet meeting from DC hotel room
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Taoiseach Micheál Martin will chair Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting despite having to isolate in his hotel room in Washington DC.
Mr Martin is said to be “well” and continuing to work from his hotel room in the US, having tested positive for Covid-19. On Monday, Mr Martin virtually hosted his usual weekly meeting of Government leaders with Leo Varadkar and Eamon Ryan and will chair Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting from Washington.
Some members of Mr Martin’s core team returned to Ireland at the weekend but he remains in isolation pending the outcome of tests. Senior Government sources have said that there is a strong desire to have the Taoiseach leave the US as quickly as possible.
It is understood that discussions are ongoing to see if Mr Martin can be allowed leave ahead of the normally prescribed isolation period of 10 days to allow him to attend this week’s crucial summit of EU leaders in Brussels. However, Mr Martin cannot go anywhere until he tests negative for Covid.
Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has said Mr Martin is doing well but is “busy as ever”. Speaking on Monday afternoon Mr Coveney said: “So first of all, the Taoiseach is well. I spoke to him over the weekend. And he is working as it is as busy as ever, but he's doing obviously most of his calls online.”
He said it is not yet clear if Mr Martin will be in a position to make the summit and if he is not, his chair at the summit will remain empty. Mr Martin will be forced to nominate another EU country to speak on Ireland’s behalf.
“We'll have to wait and see whether he's able to attend the European Council in person or not. If he's not, well, then what happens I understand technically is that he nominates somebody else in that meeting, to be able to give the Irish contribution to that discussion, but obviously, he would like to be there. But we have to, we have to wait and see whether that's possible,” Mr Coveney said.
Mr Coveney said it's too early to say if Mr Martin will be able to make it but that he hopes to.
“If it's possible for him to do that, from a Covid perspective, he will, and I think people will understand that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mr Martin has told how his Cork footballing son "got an awful slagging” after a picture of him back in 2018 went viral with many admirers of his good looks.
Micheál Aodh was pictured at a polling station with dad Micheál, mother Mary and sister Aoibhe. The Taoiseach, speaking on Doireann Garrihy’s Laughs of Your Life podcast, admitted his eldest “got an awful slagging” for it. Mr Martin also spoke movingly about the loss of his two children, Ruairi and Leana, and about learning to laugh again.
“You do learn to smile again and you will smile again, but at that time you have no sense that you ever will,” he said. Mr Martin said focusing on his other children helped to pull him through the darkness.