Varadkar is taking on the Turner’s Cross corner boy
The Taoiseach used the wrong issue to mark out his territory and has ended up going too far — and getting too smart, writes Brendan O’Connor
WE’RE probably entitled to expect a little bit more than this from our politicians. A lot of us were certainly expecting a little bit more than this from the Varadkar era, what with a straight talker from a new generation getting the reins of power. This was supposed to be the real new politics.
Admittedly the “new” Cabinet didn’t exactly inspire, but we were prepared to overlook it. He was compromised, after all. His hands were tied. He was going for evolution over revolution.
And then he announced the junior ministers, and we discovered that our new leader, a giant of liberal values, who was going to modernise the country, felt that a country that is 50pc female should be run by a Cabinet that is 80pc male. But, again, it wasn’t a deal-breaker. We were even prepared to put that cringey performance in 10 Downing Street behind us. Beginner’s nerves, and the Brits didn’t seem to mind it.
We might even have been happy to put aside the substantive matter of the manner of the appointment of Maire Whelan and the things that just don’t make sense about it, the things that don’t add up, the questions that have not been answered. We would have been happy to blame this stroke on Enda, and maybe Frances, and believe that Leo was just another one of the schmucks at Cabinet who rubber-stamped it.
But then Varadkar went and wrapped himself around it. He hastened the appointment along, as if to give the matter the legal and political cover of Whelan becoming a judge, and thus untouchable.
And if that wasn’t enough, Varadkar decided that this was the issue with which he was going to mark his territory, this was the issue with which he was going to stamp his authority. This was the issue that would put to bed twothirds of the party not voting for him. This was the issue that would put to bed any notion of weakness that arose out of his Cabinet selection, and being stood up to by Mary Mitchell O’Connor.
So basically Varadkar got all fast and decisive and not only stood over the stroke, but became its champion. Those who believed we were heading into a new era in Irish politics were disappointed. Some small part of them had dreamt that Varadkar might have chosen to use this issue to make a break with the past, to send a powerful signal that things were not done the old way any more. But instead he dug in, backed up Kenny’s mistake, and went to war on it.
So what we got last week in the Dail was a whole lot of time wasted while Varadkar had a pissing contest with Micheal Martin — a contest that got very nasty very quickly because it was a contest for first blood and neither could afford to back down.
One of the reasons given for Varadkar’s popularity with FG backbenchers over the last while was the notion that he would be the man to put it up to Fianna Fail and the left wingers in the Dail, and Varadkar knew this was his first major test in this regard. Martin, on the other hand, needed to win too, to dispel all the suggestions that he was fine when he was against a soft target like Kenny, but next to Varadkar, he looked older and less sharp.
Varadkar will have been worried too about Martin’s speeches the week before, around Kenny’s retirement and Varadkar’s coronation. Martin was sharp, genuinely funny, and he seemed energised.
Martin can often seem like a kind of a choirboy, a holier-than-thou type whose greatest vice is a cup of green tea and a square of dark chocolate at night. He doesn’t help this perception sometimes with a kind of a priestly demeanour, that concerned-pigeon face he sometimes puts on, possibly originally adopted to show Fianna Fail had changed.
But in those speeches two weeks ago, it seemed as if having a sharper adversary might have unleashed something in Martin, a Turner’s Cross/Colaiste Chriost Ri corner boy, a street fighter. Guys who went to the free suburban Church-run schools in Cork, like Spioraid Naoimh and Chriost Ri, always had more of an edge about them than the guys who went to the fee-paying schools in town like Pres and Christians. You might be more likely to captain the Lions if you went to Pres, but you were more likely to score a few points off a guy if you went to Chriost Ri.
King’s Hospital boy Varadkar may have seen this rejuvenated Martin — who is, let’s face it, starting a general election campaign that involves his last chance at being Taoiseach — and Leo might have decided he needed to neuter him. But you have to think he chose the wrong issue on which to do it. And he also possibly went too far.
Perhaps knowing the Whelan issue was a slightly compromising one, Fine Gael tried to move away from the substance of it as quickly as possible. They tried to make the row all about criticising a judge, which is, of course, a mortal sin. Indeed, one anonymous legal eagle quoted in the Irish Times told how it made his hair stand on end when he heard such talk. Not criticising judges is, it seems, the only thing that separates us from the animals, and if talk like that is allowed, the downfall of civilisation as we know it can’t be far behind.
So while refusing to answer any of the questions surrounding Whelan’s appointment, Varadkar argued Fianna Fail was actually the one disrespecting the judiciary here. It was college debating stuff.
A certain type of Fine Gael backbencher was delighted by the whole thing. Their man held his cool, was the view, while Martin slightly lost the rag. Varadkar had shown up Martin and put manners on him. As if that was the important issue. They were thrilled too at Varadkar’s great comeback when Martin revealed he had spoken to Varadkar on the phone last Sunday about the matter. Varadkar shot back that Martin had said to him in that call he would not go public with his concerns about Whelan, but he did. Varadkar’s cheerleaders seemed to manage to ignore the fact the reason Martin brought up the phone call was because Varadkar was disingenuously suggesting he knew nothing about Martin’s concerns about Whelan before last Tuesday, which made Varadkar quite the impressive actor, to be kind about it.
Brian Hayes surely spoke for a lot of Fine Gaelers on Newstalk last Friday morning when he gently put some manners on Varadkar, saying that Fianna Fail had been honourable to support the Government, and that Fine Gael needed them. In other words, stop showboating, Leo, and stop being arrogant and daring Fianna Fail to pull down the Government.
The public will get annoyed very quickly if the Dail becomes a student debating chamber, where people show how smart they are. There’s too much grown-up stuff going on in the world.
So Varadkar and Martin have had their fun now, time to get down to the real business. But if I were Varadkar, I’d watch out for that Chriost Ri corner boy.