The Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald has said Fine Gael should pick up the bill for Simon Coveney’s State car.

In 2011, the Government cut back on State cars for Cabinet members with everyone except the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Justice instructed to find their own transport.

However, it emerged in recent days that the Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has retained his car and driver even though he is no longer Tánaiste.

A Government spokesperson has confirmed that Leo Varadkar requested the change in his final days as Taoiseach.

His successor Micheál Martin has said the decision was taken on security grounds and said he was “not getting involved in any security appraisal.”

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Mary Lou McDonald said the saga, “points again to the fact that this is a very disorganised, very chaotic, very shambolic Government.”

“The Minister for Foreign Affairs has an important job to do but it does not require a car and a driver at the cost of €200,000 per annum,” she said.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Simon Coveney arriving at Dublin Castle on 06-07-2020. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

She said ministers only need protection when they are facing a “direct threat or menace.”

“That applies to every citizen and everybody on public duty including the Minister for Foreign Affairs – but that is not the case as I understand it,” she said.

“I am not disputing the fact that the man might need a driver, that is fair enough, but that could be provided, I would suggest, from Fine Gael party resources.

“I think that resource is the kind of resource you should use to provide the kind of assistance that a busy person like the minister would require.”

Pandemic Unemployment Payment

Deputy McDonald was speaking after the Government performed a U-turn on its policy of cutting State payments to people who travel to ‘green list’ countries.

She said the main issue with the policy was that the sanctions were “exclusively directed” at people whose incomes have been hit in recent months.

“If there is a penalty, as the old saying used to go, ‘what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,’” she said. “It must be applied fairly without fear or favour.”

Fairness

She said the Government remains “very ambiguous, particularly in relation to green list countries” but insisted the main issue was about fairness.

“The issue here around identifying people on COVID payments in particular and penalising them, is that it was a measure and a penalty exclusively directed at them,” she said.

“I take the view that if the Government chose to say to people, ‘do not travel and if you travel, there will be a penalty and a cost to you’ then, in fairness, that has to be applied universally.

“That was the point and that was the problem.”

She also took aim at the new requirement for people on the PUP payment to be “genuinely seeking work.”

“Are we saying to them, if you are a musician or if you work in theatre or if you work in the visual arts, go and find another job?” she asked.

“Is that a good suggestion? I don’t think it is. I think that is a very valuable sector of our economy.”

You can listen back to the full interview here: