‘He’s all socks and social media’

LEO Varadkar has been compared to Donald Trump over his devotion to social media.

The Taoiseach has been placing ‘too much emphasis on social media, socks and other trivial matters, and not enough on the big questions for the country’, said ex-tánaiste Mary Coughlan.

The former Fianna Fáil TD – who caused her own waves with a reputation for having a salty tongue, and for mixing up Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin – spoke of the new Fine Gael leader on Raidió na Gaeltachta.

She said: ‘On a personal level, Leo is a gentleman. But there are very important things happening at the moment, and socks and the like, well, they’re not important at all.

‘It’s easy to be on Twitter and not to do interviews, like President Trump in the US at the moment, but it’s not right at all.’

Mr Varadkar has been issuing weekly video messages on Twitter and Facebook. Ms Coughlan said it was ‘too easy’ to use social media instead of live interviews.

Speaking with presenter Aodh Máirtín Ó Fearraigh, she said: ‘There is very important work to be done, with Europe, policies, and so on. People are under huge pressure, and it’s too easy to be on Twitter.’

The Donegal former politician confirmed she would not be putting her name forward for the next general election, despite rumours of a return to politics. She also said that Independent candidates had been ineffective, despite their election promises.

‘What power have they to support the communities that elected them? In my opinion, they have done nothing,’ she said.

Ms Coughlan also said the Government had forgotten those outside of Dublin.

She said: ‘It’s great that Dublin is prospering and doing well with employment, but that’s not to be seen outside of the Pale.’

FORMER tánaiste Mary Coughlan has accused the Taoiseach of concentrating too much on ‘social media, socks and other trivial matters’. Perhaps she has a point. But it sounds a bit rich from someone best remembered by political observers for her foul language and wrongly crediting Albert Einstein with the theory of evolution.