Former European Commissioner Phil Hogan has criticised his treatment by the Government following the Golfgate controversy, which led to him standing down from the Commission after he was seen to have breached Covid guidelines in August 2020.
Mr Hogan claimed that the then tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, and then taoiseach, Micheál Martin, "went on this populist wave of indignation" and did so "without actually analysing anything".
However, he admitted that he had been a "bit sloppy" in relation to Covid guidelines but said he did not break any laws.
He said that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had acknowledged that he did not break any laws but asked Mr Hogan how the controversy looked "in the eyes of your Member State?"
Speaking on the Two Tribes podcast by RTÉ, he said that conversations he had with Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin were "leaked to the media".
He added that he remained annoyed at being forced to step down as European Trade Commissioner.
He said: "When I was speaking to them, we were talking about how we could explain what had happened and at the same time, they were writing a letter that was going to appear on the front page of the Sunday Independent, calling for my resignation effectively or to consider my position as they put it."
Mr Hogan said: "And they were feeding the information through the Government system to the President of the Commission as if what they were saying was actually fact."
The former EU Commissioner said that Mr Varadkar and Mr Martin "went on a campaign" which he said was sparked by a domino effect following the resignation of Dara Calleary as Minister for Agriculture.
Mr Calleary had been sitting beside Mr Hogan at the dinner in Clifden, Co Galway following an Oireachtas Golf Society outing.
The podcast is presented by broadcaster Sean O'Rourke, who himself attended the event.
Mr O'Rourke's participation resulted in plans by RTÉ for the journalist to host a radio show being scrapped.
On the podcast, which accompanies the Two Tribes documentary tonight on RTÉ One, Mr O'Rourke asked Mr Hogan if he got the sense that any senior Government figures had their "eye on replacing you?"
He responded: "There's no doubt about that. That subsequently showed to be the case. There were several figures that were looking at the possibility of being Commissioner."
He added that Government had been "completely wrong in their assessment".
He said: "They started out saying I broke rules, and broke laws. I was a bit sloppy on guidelines, but I didn't break any rule, or any law and it took a court case in Galway in February 2022 to actually show everybody what actually had happened and how wrong the Government and the media were."
Mr Hogan is currently working as a business consultant and said he does not plan to return to politics.
Responding to Mr Hogan's comments, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar Varadkar said that while he has not seen the interview in which the comments were made, he appreciates that Phil Hogan paid a very high price politically, more so than anyone who attended the event.
He added that it was regrettable that there was no sort of process in place at European Commission level as ultimately Mr Hogan was accountable to the European Commission President.
Mr Varadkar said he believes everyone should be afforded due process and a fair hearing and he will try to ensure that is the case in the future.
He stated that the incident is now in the past and there is little to be gained in going over it again.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin added that the context of the time was very clear and there was huge public anger at the time.
Mr Martin also stated that the Government had no involvement with the President of the Commission in respect of anything prior to the decision of Mr Hogan to resign at the time.
He said: "It was completely at arm's length in terms of any connection with Government and the Commision. I want to be very clear about that.
"There is some implication I think in Phil Hogan's statement that we were driving or feeding stuff into the Commission. No we were not and I think the Commission sought explanations from Phil Hogan at the time."
Mr Martin added that he thought the entire episode was "very regrettatble."
The Two Tribes podcast accompanies a two-part political history documentary series presented by Sean O'Rourke, broadcast over two consecutive nights on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player begins at 9.30 this evening.
