Varadkar’s spending boost demands for health led to rift that never healed
LEO Varadkar quit as Health Minister after a showdown with Enda Kenny over spending, a new book claims.
The biography by Philip Ryan and Niall O’connor exposes the power struggles at Leinster House during Kenny’s last year as Taoiseach.
And it reveals Varadkar demanded a massive cash injection to plug the €500million black hole in the health budget. He also wanted to bypass recruitment rules to make it easier to hire staff.
Varadkar eventually quit and moved to Social Protection after Kenny refused to back down.
With impeccable sources, journalists Ryan and O’connor tell how the pair met to discuss health during the political horse-trading after the 2016 General Election.
With Fine Gael edging closer to power, Enda Kenny asked to meet Leo Varadkar privately to discuss his future in the Cabinet.
Varadkar was conscious of the miserable time he had endured in health and decided to hatch a strategy with his confidants Brian Murphy and Philip O’callaghan.
For him to remain in the portfolio, he needed a large bag of cash and a mandate for sweeping change.
He was not prepared to accept the status quo. The prospect of returning to the department ahead of another trolley crisis that winter was unpalatable. Varadkar knew Kenny’s days as his boss were numbered.
He couldn’t devote the necessary time and attention to a leadership contest while tackling the myriad of crises that health throws up.
One close ally of Varadkar’s believes the leadership was on his mind when he attended that meeting with Kenny.
He said: “Leo was beginning to think if he was going to have a go at party leader, it would be beneficial to have another ministry under his belt.”
At the meeting Varadkar told Kenny for the past 18 months he had felt he was an apologist for the health service. He said he didn’t want to continue putting on a brave face when very little progress was being made.
But Varadkar’s next move was a gamble. He laid down a set of demands which he suggested were preconditions for him remaining in the job.
Varadkar wanted health to be made a special case in terms of spending.
He said the €500million black hole in the budget should be dealt with in the first half of the year instead of the usual approach of a supplementary winter budget. Put simply, he wanted an early payday. is second ask was no less ambitious. He wanted to bypass the rules surrounding recruitment, which were laid down by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.
Making health a special case in terms of hiring staff would represent a major policy shift.
And it would surely lead to demands by other departments to be treated similarly.
Varadkar also told his boss health needed far more support from his
Hown Department of An Taoiseach. A veteran like Kenny would not have enjoyed being lectured to by one of his youngest ministers. But Varadkar felt the current set-up left the minister of the day isolated and maintained the leader should take a far more proactive role.
An aide claimed: “When there was a crisis in health, Kenny would shy away from it. He didn’t want to know.”
Kenny listened but said little and promised nothing at the meeting. He Endy Kenny and insets, Philip O’callaghan and Phil Hogan asked Varadkar if he wanted another portfolio but he insisted he was not pitching for another job. Kenny proposed the appointment of junior ministers who would have specific roles. Varadkar insisted this would solve nothing.
The meeting ended with no resolution. Varadkar expected a follow-up but it didn’t materialise.
As one source in the Varadkar camp observes: “Kenny was a master at avoiding you when he wanted to.”
Yet the Taoiseach had a huge call to make. The last thing he needed was a Health Minister who didn’t want to be there. Equally, he did not want to sack a minister for laying down a series of demands that appeared reasonable on face value.
Phil Hogan believes Kenny was never in a position to agree to the Varadkar wishlist.
He said “The Taoiseach would not make any commitment in relation to the future financing of health when he is doing a Cabinet reshuffle.”
Other senior figures in the party believed Varadkar was trying to force Kenny to sack him.
However, another source said the minister knew he couldn’t be sacked as getting rid of him would have sparked a leadership contest.
It was widely believed in Leinster House that Varadkar effectively ran away from health so he could carve
He couldn’t sack him as it would spark a leadership contest LEINSTER HOUSE SOURCE
out his leadership campaign. But Kenny knew he was facing a dilemma: move Varadkar into a different department or sack him.
On May 6, Kenny secured the backing of five of the six-member Independent Alliance TDS to become the first Fine Gael leader to serve two consecutive terms as Taoiseach. ut as he made his way back to his office, Kenny began to agonise over his ministerial selection. Central to his dilemma was Leo Varadkar.
Instead of meeting him face-to -face, Kenny decided to phone him. It was a peculiar decision and one that disappointed Varadkar’s inner circle.
Kenny asked the Health Minister if
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