Varadkar jumped the gun

IT’S not the first time a politician has gone on The Late, Late Show and said more than they ought to have done. In the grand sweep of history Leo Varadkar’s excited pronouncement about the chances of their being an All Ireland Championship this summer won’t make many ripples. Just because they weren’t quite as illjudged as Pee Flynn’s pronouncements on his living arrangements or Tom Gilmartin’s health, however, doesn’t mean he should have said it. It struck us as quite a cheap piece of politicking, a feel-good piece of news to sugar the pill of another couple of months of life in the new abnormal.

If An Taoiseach was able to absolutely guarantee what he was suggesting might happen would happen then, you know what, fair enough. The problem arises from the fact that pretty much as soon as he said that it was made clear that he was being optimistic at best.

In Saturday’s Irish

Times Gavin Cummiskey

had an interview with the head of the National Virus Reference Laboratory (NVRL), Cillian de Gascun, which painted a much bleaker picture than the Taoiseach’s bread and circuses pronouncement to Ryan Tubridy.

“I think team sports are going to be in a very difficult position,” de Gascun told the Times.

“I don’t see it being something we could recommend from a public health perspective without social distancing and assuming we are not going to have an anti-viral therapy or a vaccine for 12 to 18 months, it is difficult to recommend.”

Then on Tuesday morning the Irish Independent reported that Dr Jim O’Donovan, the medical adviser to the Gaelic Players Association (GPA), said that there was no difference in risk between club and county action.

We can understand Mr Varadkar’s desire to give people hope, but it can’t be false hope either and he really shouldn’t use the GAA as a political football. The GAA and the people who make it up deserve better than that.