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Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland
Paddy Cosgrave (left), Taoiseach Enda Kenny (right) at last year's Web Summit.
# Thanks but no thanks
Enda Kenny was sent a last minute invite to the Web Summit but he won't be going along
There’s been some confusion about whether the Taoiseach had been invited.
Updated 6.39pm
TAOISEACH ENDA KENNY won’t be going to the Web Summit this week because his busy schedule won’t allow it.
There’d been some confusion about the Taoiseach’s attendance until this afternoon when a government spokesperson confirmed that Kenny would not be going.
The Web Summit was earlier forced to clarify that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had been invited to this week’s event after reports that he was not.
“The invite was sent out at by email on Friday, October 30th, along with invites to other participants,” the tech conference said today ahead of this week’s event.
Following this confirmation, the Taoiseach’s department says that the late invite combined with the Taoiseach’s busy diary means he won’t be going despite attending in previous years:
Given that the invitation to attend this year’s event was sent last Friday and the hectic nature of his schedule, the Taoiseach will be unable to attend. We wish Paddy and his team continued success into the future.”
The clarification comes after the Sunday Business Post had reported earlier today that the Taoiseach had not been invited to the event that runs from Tuesday to Thursday in the RDS.
The report said that the Taoiseach’s department had said that, although he had not been given an invited, he “wished the event well in its final year in Ireland”.
It now appears that there has been some crossed wires between the timing of the invite, the government’s response and the publication of the article.
The misunderstanding adds to the apparent breakdown of cooperation between the Taoiseach’s department and the Web Summit’s organisers prior to their decision to move the event from Dublin to Lisbon.
A series of email correspondence released by the Web Summit showed how their relationship with the Taoiseach’s department deteriorated as they sought plans to deal with traffic management, hotel costs and other concerns.
Read: Revealed: The emails that show why the Web Summit left Dublin >
Read: How not to win friends and influence people at the Web Summit >
