Tag Archives: Leo Varadkar

Update:

In his first speech as Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar said:

“I don’t wish to respond to the other deputies, as suffice to just say this: I received 57 votes here today, only two of those 57 were allowed to speak opposite 40 members chose to abstain, but only one of them was allowed to explain why.

“And so it’s important to democracy that we have diversity but democracy is also about proportionality and the equal right to speak must also apply…

Applause from Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil benches

“…so the equal right to speak must also apply to ministers and backbenchers of this party and also the main opposition party.”

Yesterday: New Old Politics

From top: Labour TD Brendan Howlin and Independent TD Michael Lowry

In the last few minutes.

Independent TD Michael Lowry responded to comments made earlier by Labour leader and TD Brendan Howlin in relation to Leo Varadkar securing Mr Lowry’s support for his nomination to the position of Taoiseach and the recent contact between the pair.

Mr Howlin said:

“I note today that you will be supported by Deputy [Michael] Lowry. I’m informed that you’ve spoken to Deputy Lowry on a couple of occasions in recent days and I read in this week’s Tipperary Star that Deputy Lowry has claimed that, in return for his support, he will have access to your office, as Taoiseach, to your officials and to your ministers. As Taoiseach, I hope you will put at end to such contact. You should not depend on his support.”

In his response, Mr Lowry said:

“Deputy Howlin, I consider your comments here today to be nasty and offensive. I have absolutely no doubt, and I’m in this house for 30 years, that your actions and your words were prompted by your deputy from Tipperary, Deputy Alan Kelly because they’d be very typical of his reaction to me in my county.

“When you attack me in such a manner, as you did today, you insult the people of Tipperary, the people who vote for me, as an elected representative from this House. And I remind you Deputy Howlin that, like every member of this House here today, I have a democratic mandate from the people of Tipperary who have voted for me consistently and put me as their representative in this House.

“I have enjoyed their confidence and their trust for over 30 years and I hope when the next election is called, they’ll re-endorse me as a member of this parliament for the constituency of Tipperary.”

“And, finally, I would say to you, Deputy Howlin, that I have exactly the same entitlements to access the system of Government as any other member of this House. My telephone conversations with Taoiseach-elect Varadkar were on the basis of the Programme for Government, for the policies which I was hoping that he would support.

“And on the basis of those two discussions that I had with him, I’m very happy to support him as Taoiseach and to continue to support this Government, particularly on budgetary matters because it’s not possible, as members of a parliament, to be clambering every other day for resources and monies to be spent on particular projects if you’re not prepared to stand up and to take the budgetary measures that are necessary to make sure there are funds available to implement the policies you seek.”

Watch Dail proceedings live here

Earlier: And Breathe…

UPDATE:

In addition.

Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy also had something to say about Michael Lowry’s support for Leo Varadkar, saying she finds it difficult to be…

“…preached to about budget responsibility by someone who’s been in the courts and who’s been with Revenue in relation to his own tax affairs. It’s hardly the kind of ethical, you know, ethical behaviour that should exemplify the kind of rebuilding of this country.”

FIGHT!

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin and Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach-in-waiting Leo Varadkar

This morning.

On RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

Presenter Audrey Carville, in an interview with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, asked him about the front page story in today’s Irish Independent, headlined: “FF deal with Leo will quieten Left parties in Dáil’.

In the story, Kevin Doyle reports:

Fianna Fáil is pushing to have the allocation of speaking in the Dáil dramatically restructured to favour larger parties.

In a shift away from so-called ‘new politics’, Michéal Martin wants to team up with incoming Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to rebalance power in the Dáil to reflect the number of TDs in a party.

….During his meeting with Mr Varadkar, the Fianna Fáil leader argued that the d’Hondt system should be used for deciding speaking time. This would see time allocated based on the size of a party’s representation.

“I think Leo understood where I was coming from very strongly on that,” he said.

Further to this.

From Morning Ireland earlier…

Audrey Carville: “Let me ask about the front page story in the Irish Independent this morning. That you, along with Leo Varadkar, are planning to restructure Dáil speaking time, away from left-wing parties. Is that true? Are they getting too much?”

Micheál Martin: “No, I’ve been saying this for quite some time. This is not news in the sense that my, or our, position is that we should have the d’Hondt mechanism which basically means that people get the time that reflects their parliamentary strength. The majority of our TDs are not getting the time, fair time in the Dáil and it’s the same for the Fine Gael party and, indeed the Sinn Féin party…”

Carville: “Are you feeling threatened by the quality of their contributions?”

Martin: “No, no it’s just that we want fairness. I think nobody an argue that if you 45 TDs you should get a proportion of the amount of time that reflects that. We’re simply saying that the current situation is not fair and a lot of deputies are getting squeezed out and excluded from having the opportunity to participate in Dáil debates so I think it’s only fair that the amount of time we get should reflect our strength in the Dáil.”

Later, when asked if he’ll miss Enda Kenny:

Martin: “On a personal level, we got on very well and I wish himself and Fionnuala the very, very best. I think, fundamentally, he was a courageous politician, he took over when Fine Gael was at a very low ebb. I think he’s probably smiling a bit today that there are many people who are out there declaring that he was the greatest leader since Brian Boru even though they were looking for journalists to brief a short time ago against him, that’s the nature of politics. So I think he’s probably enjoying the moment that he’s enjoyed the last number of weeks. But I wish him well and I think he worked on behalf of the country, extremely enthusiastic, he was a patriot and he was a courageous leader.”

Previously: ‘They’re Loud And They’re Growing’

‘This Hard-Left, Conspiratorial View’

Listen back in full here

UPDATE:

Social Democrat TD Catherine Murphy (above) has released a statement, saying:

“Fianna Fail want the best of both worlds, they already have the benefit of having one foot in Government and one foot in opposition and now they want to effectively silence those of us who actually present real opposition to what is essentially a cosy Fianna Fail and Fine Gael arrangement in the House.”

“While Fianna Fáil may, in name only, be the main opposition party, their deal to support the Fine Gael minority Government ensures that they do not offer a credible opposition. In such a scenario the rest of the opposition become vital at holding the Minority government and its supporters to account.”

“For Fianna Fáil to try and dilute that opposition is yet another breathtakingly arrogant move by a party who seem to be confused about whether they are in Government or Opposition.”

The panel on RTÉ’s Saturday with Claire Byrne at the weekend

At the weekend.

On Saturday with Claire Byrne.

Claire was joined today by Sinn Fein MP Francie Molloy, political editor of the Irish Examiner Daniel McConnell, Fianna Fail TD Darragh O’Brien, Independent Alliance TD Michael Fitzmaurice, Fine Gael party chairman Martin Heydon and Irish Times political reporter Mary Minihan.

During their discussion, Michael Fitzmaurice was asked about why he will not be supporting the nomination of Leo Varadkar for Taoiseach in the Dail tomorrow.

Claire Byrne: “Michael, you’re not going to vote for Leo [Varadkar]. You’re going to vote against Leo. You abstained when it was Enda Kenny but you’re voting against Leo. What did he do to you?”

Michael Fitzmaurice: “Leo did nothing. I made it very clear that, first of all, it’s nothing against him. It would be the same if it was Simon Coveney and I wish him luck by the way. But the last time I was at talks and, look it, it went up to the very last few minutes but a Programme for Government was put together and that Programme for Government and all the people, in fairness Fianna Fáil were involved at the time, and Independents were involved and we drove up and down the road many a day to try and put a document together and, unfortunately, there are lots of parts of that Programme for Government that would be important and parts that I would have been very involved in myself, like agriculture, and rural, you know, things in rural Ireland that haven’t been delivered on. Look it, it has basically been…”

Byrne: “So it’s a protest vote really?”

Fitzmaurice: “Look it, there’s no point in voting, there’s no point in spending 80 days up and down a road to have a piece of paper that you look at above in a frame and nothing happening on it. And that’s the reason and that’s the only reason. There’s absolutely nothing against Leo Varadkar. As I say, I wish him the best of luck. But that’s my stand and I’m taking it.”

Daniel McConnell: “Michael, Michael, come on, would you not be honest like, cause we’ve spoken about this before and others who have spoken about this before. You know Simon Coveney was one who was very involved in the talks but Leo Varadkar, all the way through, was a very disinterested figure, he was more interested in looking at his phone than he was looking in the eyes of the Independents. Is that not more the reason for not voting for him than the failure to put the stuff through like?”

Fitzmaurice: “If you want to deal with, you’re dealing with two different issues there and you’re asking me two different questions and I’ll deal with both questions very frank and clear. In fairness to Simon Coveney, he put in hours and hours and there was many a row during it and, in fairness to him, he never threw the baby out with the bathwater.

“Yeah, there was less interest from Leo but that’s absolutely nothing got to do today with, when you agree a Programme for Government or when it’s there, it’s about delivering and, yes, some things have been delivered on, I’m not going to go saying or slating that nothing has been delivered. But the important things and especially, you know, I see things in agriculture – cause that’s the type of rural area I come from – that’s ferociously important to keeping families in rural areas that hasn’t seen the boom thankfully that Dublin has seen and Galway city has seen. And that’s good and job numbers and more people working is good things. I’m not being critical of everything.”

Byrne: “And you did say that if Simon had won the contest that you would take the same stance.”

Fitzmaurice: “Yes…”

Listen back in full here

Pic: Saturday with Claire Byrne

From the Dáil plinth this afternoon.

Fianna Fáil Mícheál Martin addresses journalists after he held a meeting with the new leader of Fine Gael Leo Varadkar.

Pic: Martina Fitzgerald

Yesterday.

Spotted at The Angler’s Rest in Castleknock, Dublin 20.

Fine Gael’s new leader and Taoiseach-elect Leo Varadkar walking with EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development and former Fine Gael Environment Minister Phil Hogan.

Good times.

Previously: Denis O’Brien, Fine Gael And The Water Meter Deal

They’re Loud And They’re Growing

Had Your Phil Yet?

Earlier: Defeat Leoliberalism? Yes We Khan

Thanks Revolution

This morning.

Fine Gael HG, Mount Street, Dublin 2

Leo Varadkar casts his vote in the Fine Gael leadership election.

Where’s your tie, hippy?

Pic via Leo Varadkar

Meanwhile…

YIKES!!!

UPDATE:

Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar launching his Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All campaign in April

You may recall how Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar launched his €200,845 Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All campaign last month.

In the relation to the launch, at the time, the Irish Independent reported:

Mr Varadkar said the facial recognition technology associated with the [public service] card was helping the Department of Social Protection find “doppelgangers” who try to double claim payments.

“There are quite a few out there,” he said. The facial recognition software can identify ‘double people’ out there. “Even people putting on make-up and beards and stuff. None of that works because it’s all based on bone structure.”

Further to this…

Sarah Bardon, in The Irish Times, reports:

The Department of Social Protection has identified just one suspected case of identity fraud this year, it has emerged.

The department said in response to a parliamentary question that 134 suspected cases had been identified between 2014 and April this year, with 21 successful prosecutions so far, and 18 people receiving custodial sentences.

‘Single case’ of social-welfare identity fraud suspected this year (Sarah Bardon, The Irish Times)

Welfare cheats using make-up and fake beards to get benefits won’t beat the ID software, warns Varadkar (Irish Independent)