Leo laughs off Lowry question
IN THE 2016 general election, then minister Leo Varadkar responded to an Irish Mail on Sunday report that controversial TD Michael Lowry’s vote could be crucial to any future Fine Gael government, by saying he would not like to be relying on independents like Mr Lowry.
If Mr Varadkar is still concerned about this the weekend before the last budget of the current confidence-and-supply deal, he wasn’t showing it last night at Fine Gael’s annual presidential dinner.
When asked how he felt about having to rely on Mr Lowry to pass his Budget on Tuesday the Taoiseach laughed off the possibility. ‘I’m not sure we do [laughs], we’ll see about that on Tuesday. We had a confidence vote only two weeks ago in the Dáil and we won that by 10 votes.
‘I don’t think we’ll pass the Budget by such a big margin but it’ll be more than one.
Asked further if he had spoken to Mr Lowry about the Budget, the Taoiseach said: ‘Not personally, I haven’t.’
Mr Lowry previously told the MoS that he had an unwritten understanding with the Taoiseach that allows him access to the ministerial corridors.
The MoS revealed that despite his 2016 reservations, Mr Varadkar spoke twice with Mr Lowry in an aim to secure his backing for his premiership.
In 2016, during the election campaign, Mr Varadkar said of deals with independents: ‘Because if we are back to that, we are back to the kind of parish pump deals that existed in the past. Fine Gael has never actually engaged in them, only Fianna Fáil has. So we don’t want to go back to that. Of course, last time Michael Lowry was involved in such a deal it involved Fianna Fáil.
‘And there are a number of independent TDs who have issues with the law, including Mr Lowry, but others too.
‘And I would hate to see a government being dependent on somebody not having to be in court or potentially being in prison. That is not what we need in this country.
‘I wouldn’t like us to be in a position where we would have to depend on any independent or small party,’ Mr Varadkar added.