Varadkar call raises serious questions

WHILE there was nothing to preclude Mr Varadkar from making the call to Clare County Council on behalf of Donald Trump, it raises questions about the access afforded to ministers for wealthy business figures, particularly on a private matter, and particularly when the request for help came out of the blue.

Only the minister responsible for planning, which is the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, is precluded by law from interfering in the planning process. This is because they are responsible for setting overall policy and the legal framework for the system, and so cannot interfere in the execution of that policy.

Other ministers, TDs, senators and councillors are free to engage, and routinely do so, by making objections or supporting certain projects, with their submissions available on the public record.

But for a senior Government minister to pick up the phone and make representations off the record, as Mr Varadkar appears to have done, harks back to an Ireland most thought we had left behind.

The issue of the wind farm had nothing to do with the business of government, being an entirely private matter, so why did Mr Varadkar feel the need to make the call?

And it’s worth noting that Government policy then, as it remains, is to encourage the roll-out of renewable energy. If Mr Varadkar was suggesting to the council – and we don’t know if he was – that this project be refused permission, did it not fly in the face of what government was trying to achieve?

And, lest we forget, the public is already sceptical about the links between big business and Government, particularly in the wake of the planning tribunal.

We should be told what Mr Varadkar said, and if it had a bearing on the wind farm application. But it should also be made clear that if a government minister wants to engage in the planning process, they should make a submission like everybody else which can be subject to public scrutiny, and not go behind closed doors.