...and after the Doonbeg debacle, will Leo try any more jokes?

LEO Varadkar’s boast that he intervened to help resolve a planning issue at Donald Trump’s Irish golf course appeared to unravel last night, after Clare County Council said it had no record of him calling.

Opposition politicians were outraged after the Taoiseach joked, at a Friends of Ireland lunch, that he had been contacted by the then businessman in 2014 over concerns that a proposed windfarm would ruin the ‘beauty of the landscape’.

Mr Varadkar, who was tourism minister at the time, told his audience he initially thought the phonecall was a ‘piss-take’ by a staff member but said he ‘endeavoured to do what I could do about it’ when he realised it was genuine.

He said: ‘I rang the county council and inquired about the planning permission and subsequently the planning permission was declined and the windfarm was never built, thus the landscape being preserved, and the president has very kindly given me credit for that, although I do think it probably would have been refused anyway.’

‘I rang the county council and inquired’

However, the story took a new twist last night when Mr Varadkar’s spokesman said didn’t make the call, but asked an official to.

Mr Trump was clearly delighted when the permission was refused, taking to Twitter on October 9, 2014 to say: ‘Great news from Ireland – Clare County Council turned down massive windfarm near my hotel & golf course in Doonbeg.’

Mr Varadkar’s claim was condemned by Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Labour, the Greens and the Social Democrats, as well as environmental group Friends of the Earth.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin tweeted: ‘Taoiseach needs to be more transparent in relation to his intervention with Clare County Council on behalf of President Trump regarding a planning application for a windfarm. Who did he ring? What was the nature of the intervention?’ Fianna Fáil’s environment spokesman Barry Cowen said he was ‘amazed’ by the story.

‘The public... need to know whether or not the representation interfered with the planning process in Doonbeg because it was coming from a minister,’ he said.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said she was ‘taken aback and alarmed’ by Mr Varadkar’s comments. Speaking from the United States yesterday evening, she said: ‘The Taoiseach must clarify his actions and the appropriateness of his intervention on this planning issue.’

A spokesman for the Taoiseach initially tried to play down the growing controversy as an ‘old story’, told in a ‘humorous manner’. As the opposition response grew louder however, he argued that any intervention was justified. ‘It’s normal for ministers to seek information on planning applications when issues are raised by citizens, businesses or investors,’ he said.

But when contacted by the Irish Daily Mail last night, Clare County Council said it had never received an intervention from Mr Varadkar.

‘The Planning Application was received on 15th August 2014.

‘All representations, objections and observations made in relation to this and all other planning applications are available to view on the planning file and the Clare County Council website.

‘There is no representation by Leo Varadkar, the then minister for tourism and Sport, or any elected member on this planning file,’ the council said.

When contacted by the Mail about this, the Taoiseach’s spokesman said he hadn’t personally contacted the council – instead he had simply asked an official to inquire about it. Although he did say he ‘rang the county council’.

Mr Varadkar had previously claimed to have inquired about the Doonbeg windfarm in an interview with Time magazine last year.