FG begins to ponder life after Leo as he reshuffles his top team
THERE’S a theory doing the rounds in Fine Gael that Leo Varadkar may not be intending to lead the party into the next general election. Suspicious minds believe the newly appointed Tánaiste is paving the way for his exit in the latter half of his tenure in the Taoiseach’s Office once Micheál Martin hands over the keys.
The theory is that Varadkar will take over as Taoiseach as planned in December 2022 and remain in situ for around two years. The Fine Gael leader would use his EU connections to land a big gig in Brussels or elsewhere.
Phil Hogan will be finishing his second term in the Commission and perhaps Varadkar can strike a deal with Martin or who ever is leading Fianna Fáil and he could head for the Berlaymont Building.
A leadership contest would have to take place but Simon Coveney would be well-placed to succeed. Some in Fine Gael even suggest the two senior figures may even have struck some sort deal with each other about what might happen in such a scenario. The suspicions were raised about Varadkar’s future intentions by some of his appointments on entering into coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.
A number of previously loyal party supporters were sidelined in favour of people who publicly supported Coveney in the leadership campaign, the two obvious examples being Cabinet ministers Simon Harris and Hildegarde Naughton.
Minister of State Damien English, who is a diehard Coveney supporter, was appointed as a junior to Varadkar’s department.
Meanwhile, Varadkar supporters such as John Paul Phelan, Brendan Griffin and Michael Ring were shown the door. Phelan was offered the position of deputy government whip with the promise of the chief whip role once Varadkar was in the Taoiseach’s Office.
However, the Kilkenny TD didn’t fancy scrambling around trying to convince disgruntled deputies in Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens to vote for unpalatable legislation for the next twoand-a-half years.
Eoghan Murphy is still in Varadkar’s inner circle despite not being given a ministerial role. Varadkar said the former housing minister asked specifically not to be reappointed and is instead taking over some new internal party role. He is also seen as Varadkar’s mole among the disenfranchised party members.
“You know when you’re talking to Eoghan it is being reported straight back to Leo,” a source said.
Former TDs who were active in the leadership contest were also overlooked in the Seanad. There was a lot of raised eyebrows when Regina Doherty was appointed leader of the Seanad. Ms Doherty was unsuccessful in the General Election and refused to run for the Seanad.
She was then announced as one of the Taoiseach’s nominees to the upper house and given the leader role with its €20,000 salary top-up.
Meanwhile, former TDs who were elected as senators such as Michael D’Arcy and Sean Kyne, who both were active in Mr Varadkar’s leadership campaign, were overlooked.
Another Seanad appointment that sparked discussion about Varadkar’s future plans was that of his running mate in Dublin West Emer Currie.
Currie polled just over 1,800 votes in the election and was also unsuccessful in the subsequent bid for a Seanad seat.
But those results aside, some believe the only political rationale for appointing Currie to the Seanad was Varadkar planning for succession as it is unlikely there will be two seats for the party in Dublin West in the next election.
“The Fine Gael seat in Dublin West was hard fought for and there is no room for complacency when Leo decides to move on,” a well-placed source said. However, there is also the fact Varadkar has never brought in a running mate and this may be a goal he would like to achieve before retiring.
The alternative view to why so many of his supporters got overlooked for jobs was that it was simply based on their performance in the last Dáil.
The media-obsessed Taoiseach kept tabs on all his TDs’ appearances on TV and radio and many of those promoted regularly went out to bat for the Government over the past three years.