Tag Archives: Leo Varadkar

Life’s a bitch thing.

*breaks lance*

Yesterday: Kiss Your Mother With That Mouth?

Leo Varadkar during Leaders’ Questions this afternoon

In the past 30 minutes.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar responded to questions from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin about the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation.

Readers will recall questions have been asked about what knowledge, if any, the former Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald – who is currently in the United Arab Emirates on a trade mission – had of the legal strategy employed by An Garda Siochana against whistleblower Sgt Maurice McCabe during the O’Higgins commission.

The legal strategy set out to argue Sgt McCabe had made complaints about Gardai because of a grudge and that evidence of this was based on a meeting Sgt McCabe had with two gardai.

But the strategy was dropped when Sgt McCabe produced a recording of the meeting.

Mr Varadkar said:

“I spoke to the Tanaiste yesterday, who’s currently in the United Arab Emirates on a trade mission. She confirmed to me that she had no hand, act or part in forming the former commissioner’s [Noirin O’Sullivan] legal strategy.

“Nor did she have any prior knowledge of the legal strategy that the former commissioner’s team pursued. She did find out about it after the fact, but around the time it was in the public domain when everyone else knew about it aswell.”

“Needless to say, the current minister for justice was not the minister for justice at the time and also had no hand, act, or part, or prior knowledge of the legal strategy being pursued by the former commissioner’s legal team.

“In terms of the Department of Justice, and I appreciate the Department of Justice is a big place with lots of different people in it but, as things stand, the Department of Justice hasn’t been able to find any record of being prior informed or being informed before the fact about the legal strategy the commissioner was going to pursue.

“They were told, the Department was told about the approach taken by the commissioner’s senior counsel but that was after the cross-examination had taken place.

“So they obviously were not in a position, after the fact, to express concerns about it or to counsel against it.

Readers will recall that, at the outset of the O’Higgins Commission in 2015 – which was looking at complaints of Garda malpractice made by Sgt McCabe, legal counsel for the then Garda Commissioner Noirin O’Sullivan and An Garda Siochana said it would argue that Sgt McCabe was making these complaints because of a grudge.

It was told evidence of this would be based on a meeting Sgt McCabe had with two gardai, Supt Noel Cunningham and Sgt Yvonne Martin, in Mullingar in August 2008.

Broadsheet has previously reported how it was also claimed at the O’Higgins Commission of Investigation that the reason Sgt McCabe had a so-called grudge was because he wanted directions made by the DPP in 2007 – in respect of an “dry humping” allegation made by the daughter of a guard previously disciplined by Sgt McCabe in 2006 – overturned.

But the DPP’s directions were categorically in Sgt McCabe’s favour.

They included the line: “Even if there wasn’t a doubt over her credibility, the incident that she describes does not constitute a sexual assault or indeed an assault… there is no basis for prosecution.”

An Garda Siochana weren’t aware that Sgt McCabe had been fully briefed of the DPP’s directions until he told the commission this on May 15, 2015 and explained how he was totally satisfied with the directions and no desire for them to be overturned.

In addition, Sgt McCabe produced a recording of the meeting in Mullingar to the commission – which turned out to completely contradict the claims made about the meeting.

An Garda Siochana later dropped both claims in the commission and they were never reported in the commission’s final report.

Further to this…

In response to a question from Mr Martin to Mr Varadkar about reports of a phone call, on May 15, 2015 – from Ms O’Sullivan to the Secretary General of the Department of Justice – in relation to the legal strategy adopted…

Mr Varadkar said:

“Whether it was on, I know you’ve claimed that it was a call on the day of the cross-examination to the secretary general, we haven’t been able to confirm if that’s the case or not.

“I think perhaps it was not. So I think that assertion may be false, but I don’t want to swear to that today until I can find out for certain but I think that assertion is probably incorrect.

“There may well have been a phonecall from the commissioner’s office to the Department of Justice on the day but it’s not unusual for the commissioner’s office to contact the Department of Justice.

“So to answer your questions, the former Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald had no hand, act or part in the legal strategy, had no prior knowledge of it and she and the department only found out about it after the cross examination had already taken place.”

Update:

Hmm.

Previously: The Legal Strategy Against Maurice McCabe


Yesterday.

Ahead of Fine Gael’s National Conference kicking off tonight in the Slieve Russell Hotel in Cavan…

And his keynote address at 8.30pm.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar posted the picture above on his Facebook page.

Hmmm.

How did that go?

Alternatively…

FIGHT!

Leo Varadkar (Facebook)

Thanks Strategic Comms Unit

UPDATE:

Meanwhile…

Splutter!

From top: Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Sinn Fein TD Eoin O’Broin, a Twitter clip from Mr Varadkar posted on Monday which was referred to during Leaders’ Questions today

This afternoon.

During Leaders’ Questions.

Sinn Féin TD Eoin O’Broin addressed Taoiseach Leo Varadkar about the affordability, or non-affordability, of housing in Ireland.

He told how there are many people who earn too much for social housing but cannot afford to rent or buy a decent home.

Among his examples, Mr O’Broin mentioned couples who earn a combined €50,000 or a single working person who earns €35,000 a year.

He said average rents cost between €14,000 and €23,000 per year, while average house prices across Ireland cost around €250,000 and, in Dublin, in the region of €400,000.

Specifically, he asked:

“Can you tell us what the Government’s definition of affordable housing is? And can you tell us the exact number of genuinely affordable housing units that will be delivered by your government next year?“

Mr Varadkar:

“I can’t give you a numerical definition of affordable housing. Obviously that depends on, on the individual but I certainly would think that somebody who earns the average income in the State should be able to, to be able to get a mortgage and should be able to purchase a home with that.

“And, obviously, without giving you a numerical definition, I can’t answer the second part of your question.”

Later

“I’m encouraged by the fact that planning permissions are up, that construction is up. I was in my constituency on Monday with Minister Murphy visiting the Hansfield area where over 1,000 houses are under construction – 150 of which are public housing, social housing and about 800-900 are family housing and affordable housing.

“And in my constituency, in that part of my constituency, there are houses that are available for €320,000 and apartments that are available for €220,000. People who are able to secure a 35-year mortgage paying €880 a month which is considerably less than rent for people in lots of parts of the city. So I think we are making real progress in that regard.”

As part of his response, Mr O’Broin said:

“I was hoping you’d mention Hamstead in Fingal. I watched the Twitter clip (above) of you yesterday of you in the hard hat and initially, of course,  I thought it was a Callan’s Kicks satire because there you were stood beside houses and the sale price of those houses that you were stood in front of, Taoiseach, was €315,000 to €395,000.

“So you’d need a combined household income of between €81,000 and €101,000. You’d need a deposit of €31,000 to €39,000.

“Now you ask me where do I get my definition of affordable housing. Well, actually, it’s from legislation, from existing affordable housing schemes introduced in this State.

“It’s above the threshold for social housing and it’s approximately a household average of €75,000.

“So it is absolutely remarkable that we have a Taoiseach that doesn’t even know what the legislative definition of affordable housing is, let alone have one for his own Government, and cannot tell us how many affordable units will be delivered from the €1.1billion of subsidies he’s giving to private developers.”

Mr Varadkar and Mr O’Broin then had the following exchange:

Varadkar: “You are, of course, misinformed, because the houses that were behind me are not for sale. They’re social housing.”

O’Broin: “The houses on the left…for sale. They were right behind you.”

Varadkar: “I think this is getting to the point of triviality but for anyone who’s interested in the facts, there are about 1,000 homes under construction there. It includes social housing which is not for sale. It includes apartments which are specially adapted for people with disabilities. It includes private housing.”

Mr Varadkar went on to claim Sinn Fein, specifically on Dublin City Council, only want “segregation” and social housing-only areas as opposed to mixed areas with different types of housing.

Mr O’Broin said this wasn’t true.

Mr Varadkar went on to say:

“The reason why Sinn Fein wants that is because they want segregation, they want to divide people so they can brew up discontent.”

Hmmm

Meanwhile…

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

From top: Social Democrat TD Roisin Shortall and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar

This afternoon.

In the Dail.

During Leaders’ Questions.

Social Democrat TD Roisin Shortall raised the Paradise Papers with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

Ms Shortall said:

“Taoiseach, I want to raise the issue of the Paradise Papers and the information which is now emerging in respect of Apple’s tax arrangements.

“The facilitation of these arrangements, by successive Irish Governments and the considerable negative impact which this is having on Ireland’s reputation.

“The central theme, running through the Paradise Papers, is the relentless quest of the wealthy and the powerful , the great and the good, to find ways of avoiding paying tax.

“We saw this most startlingly in the operation of the Double Irish and its use by Apple and the subsequent ruling by the European Commission that this favourable treatment constituted state aid.

“In that regard it certainly seemed that the facilitation of tax avoidance was an intentional strategy, adopted by Government, and its agencies, in 1991, and updated in 2007.

“It was very hard to understand why the Government in Septmeber of last year, with the full benefit of hindsight, could stand over the manner in which the sweetheart deals were done and vouch for their full compliance with the law.

“The public, generally, cannot understand why the Government should now be spending considerable, additional millions in appealing that ruling.

“Then Minister Michael Noonan’s position was very hard to understand.

“In 2013, he signalled that he intended to close down the Double Irish on which the tax avoidance arrangement was based.

“The impact of this was considerable for Apple’s tax liability. We know that there was much engagement between Apple and the Department of Finance around this time.

“We also know, thanks to the Paradise Papers, that Apple went on a jurisdiction shopping spree in search of another tax-dodging deal.

“We know that following the closing of the Double Irish that Apple restructured their companies, that they registered two of their Cork companies in Jersey and took up tax residency in Ireland where their remaining Cork company Apple Operations Europe.

“This combined with the changes made to the Capital Allowance regime in 2014 allowed Apple to sell their IP back to the Irish registered company and avail of the massive tax breaks which this measure facilitated.

“So, Taoiseach, the questions are: Was our Capital Allowance regime changed to allow Apple to keep it’s formerly stateless profits entirely untaxed?

“In other words, was it done to compensate Apple for the loss of the Double Irish?

“Had Apple, or their representatives, requested a change to the Capital Allowances regime?

“And how much has Apple benefited by this change?

“And how much as the State lost?”

In response.

Mr Varadkar said:

“The answer to your question is: No, or at least, not to my knowledge. It maybe a question that you want to put to the Minster for Finance who would have more information thanI do on those particular matters.

“I don’t have a detailed knowledge of any companies’ tax affairs or any individual’s tax affairs for that matter?

“Tax avoidance is very much an international problem. And international problems require international solutions.

“And, as we found, when it comes to dealing with tax avoidance, by large companies, once one country acts, the company just moves to another jurisdiction.

“That is why we need an international solution to this problem if we’re going to bring about a situation whereby companies pays their fair share of tax.

“In this regard, Ireland is an international leader. The OECD, the organisation for economic co-operation and development, based in Paris, is the international organisation that deals with taxation and deals with this area, making sure that companies aren’t able to exploit differences in tax law from one jurisdiction to the next.

“The OECD has designated Ireland as one of only 22 countries in a world of nearly 200 where we’re entirely tax compliant, or compliant rather with tax transparency

“And we’ve also signed up to information sharing. So we’re going to share information from one country to the next as to how much tax each company pays in different jurisdictions. That’s going to be very useful.”

…The Double Irish is gone. Stateless companies are gone as well. And also the current Finance Bill which is going through changed the way that we tax intellectual property.

“However we don’t accept at all that Ireland was involved in any special arrangement or state aid for Apple and that is why we are fighting that case.

“Because it’s simply not the case that Ireland was involved in State aid.”