department, in breach of public health guidelines on 17 june 2020, when ireland was elected to the un security council. at the time of the incident, ireland was at phase two of a roadmap issued by the government for reopening the national economy after the first peak of the covid-19 pandemic when a person could only meet people from up to six other households and working from home was advised. in a statement, a spokesperson for the department said "steps had been taken" after the un security council campaign team "briefly let their guard down", blaming "a moment of happiness" for the incident and insisting that "lessons have been learned". the iveagh house party was compared to the golfgate scandal by people before profit td paul murphy, who said it undermined the public health effort, and those involved seemed to believe the rules only applied to "little people", while independent td michael mcnamara criticised the department for "hypocrisy". on 16 january 2022, minister for foreign affairs simon coveney ordered an investigation into the gathering. on 31 january, an investigation found that a "serious breach" of social distancing rules occurred. the former secretary general niall burgess, who was responsible for the photograph, was asked to make a donation to a charity providing assistance to people affected by covid-19 in the amount of €2,000, while three other senior officials were asked to make a donation in the amount of €1,000. instances of isolation and testing 2020 mary lou mcdonaldcharlie mcconaloguehelen mcenteemcdonald (sinn féin), mcconalogue (fianna fáil) and mcentee (fine gael) were the first tds from their respective parties to confirm they had contracted covid-19. on 16 march, thomas pringle, an independent td representing the donegal constituency, entered isolation due to previous contact with someone in dublin and the high risk to his own personal health. on 18 march, luke 'ming' flanagan, the independent mep representing the midlands–north-west constituency, announced that he and his family would begin self-isolating after his daughter exhibited symptoms of covid-19. on 19 march, it was reported that minister for housing, planning and local government eoghan murphy had been in self-isolation for the past week after returning from a visit abroad to see family. murphy had set off before travel advice against doing so was issued and—while he had "not been in direct physical contact with any colleagues"—he, nevertheless, was well enough to continue his work remotely. on 23 march, tánaiste simon coveney revealed he had tested negative for covid-19. he underwent the test after being contact traced via the positive result of claire byrne, whom he had sat beside on live television less than two weeks previously. it was believed that coveney was the first member of the varadkar cabinet to be tested for the virus. on 14 april (the day after the easter monday public holiday), president of sinn féin mary lou mcdonald confirmed she had tested positive for covid-19. on 23 april, president of sinn féin mary lou mcdonald announced that she had recovered from covid-19. she gave an interview to ryan tubridy on the late late show the following night, in which one covid-19 positive person interviewed another covid-19 positive person for television viewers nationwide. on 3 june, it was revealed that minister for health simon harris had self-isolated for several days after developing symptoms of the virus; a test returned a negative result. on 15 september, ceann comhairle seán ó fearghaíl announced that the entire government would have to restrict their movements after minister for health stephen donnelly reported feeling unwell and contacted his gp for a covid-19 test. the department of health confirmed that acting chief medical officer ronan glynn was also restricting his movements as he had met members of the government on 14 september, while minister of state for european affairs thomas byrne had gone into self-isolation after getting tested for covid-19. the leader of the green party and minister for climate action, communication networks and transport eamon ryan previously self-isolated while a member of his household awaited results of a covid-19 test. just after 9pm, it was announced that minister for health stephen donnelly tested negative for covid-19 and that the government no longer needed to restrict their movements. on 23 september, tánaiste leo varadkar, minister for foreign affairs simon coveney and minister for finance paschal donohoe were among the three cabinet ministers who began to restrict their movements under covid-19 public health advice. varadkar was informed that he was a close contact of someone who tested positive for covid-19, and subsequently took a test which returned negative. coveney restricted his movements after attending meetings in brussels, while donohoe restricted his movements after attending a meeting of eu finance ministers in berlin and subsequently took a test which returned negative. donohoe was deemed a close contact of bruno le maire, the french finance minister, who tested positive for covid-19 on 18 september. on 24 october, four fine gael senators (tim lombard, jerry buttimer, emer currie, garret ahearn) were reported to have begun self-isolating after two tested positive for covid-19. currie later confirmed she was one of the two, and that her positive result had caused the other three to isolate. on 17 december, taoiseach micheál martin tested negative for covid-19 following an announcement that he was restricting his movements after coming into close contact with french president emmanuel macron, who had tested positive for covid-19. on 23 december, all ministers in the government restricted their movements after it emerged that minister for agriculture, food and the marine charlie mcconalogue had tested positive for covid-19. mcconalogue was tested after returning from brussels on 17 december. the result was negative. he then went shopping in dublin city centre hours ahead of a scheduled five-day follow-up covid-19 test which led to the positive result mcconalogue received "sometime between 10.30am and 11am" on 23 december. he displayed no symptoms and isolated in his native county donegal. 2021 frank feighanseán ó fearghaíleamon ryanfeighan (fine gael), ó fearghaíl (fianna fáil) and ryan (green party) contracted covid-19 in 2021. shortly after 11 am on the morning of 6 january 2021, minister for justice helen mcentee announced on twitter that she had tested positive for covid-19 but intended to work remotely while isolating. on 13 october, minister for health stephen donnelly announced that he was self-isolating after experiencing mild symptoms. on 6 november, minister for the environment, climate and communications eamon ryan tested positive for covid-19 and cancelled his trip to the cop26 conference in glasgow. the next day, it was confirmed that he tested negative after taking a second test and would now travel to cop26. on 7 november, minister of state for public health, well being and national drugs strategy frank feighan experienced symptoms of covid-19 and a positive test result was announced the next day. on 22 november 2021, ceann comhairle seán ó fearghaíl began self-isolating and working from home after testing positive for covid-19. leas-cheann comhairle catherine connolly took over his duties. on 19 december, minister for the environment, climate and communications eamon ryan began self-isolating after testing positive for covid-19. 2022 simon harristhomas pringlemicheál martinharris (fine gael), pringle (independent) and martin (fianna fáil) all contracted covid-19 in the same week of march 2022. on 11 march 2022, minister for further and higher education, research, innovation and science simon harris began working from home after testing positive for covid-19. on 12 march, thomas pringle announced he had tested positive for covid-19 and would be isolating for seven days. late on 16 march, taoiseach micheál martin tested positive for covid-19 while he was at an event in washington being held for st patrick's day. this meant martin could not personally meet president of the united states joe biden at the white house as planned the next day. biden and martin met virtually instead, with martin isolating in blair house. martin said he would chair the next cabinet meeting from the irish embassy in washington. minister for agriculture, food and the marine charlie mcconalogue had been due to travel to canada for st patrick's day in march 2022. however, he later confirmed that a positive covid-19 test had prevented him from doing so. his period of isolation elapsed in time for him to sit on the "vip lorry" at the parade in buncrana. on 23 march, minister for justice helen mcentee tested positive for covid-19, while minister for health stephen donnelly began self-isolating at home due to flu-like symptoms. two days later, on 25 march, tánaiste leo varadkar cancelled a number of engagements in cork and began self-isolating after testing positive for covid-19. on 13 june, minister for the environment, climate and communications eamon ryan tested positive for covid-19 a second time.