If an MRI scan was carried out on Varadkar, I doubt it would find a backbone
Doctor Leo fails to help families in need
IT’S nearly two years since Leo Varadkar’s government promised to roll out a medicinal cannabis access programme to help alleviate chronic pain or prevent seizures. It’s a damning indictment of this government’s incompetence that this vital scheme has yet to be established.
How pathetic that the only legal avenue available for those desperately in need of medicinal marijuana is to ask the Health Minister for a special licence.
And it’s obviously a very restrictive system too because only around a dozen patients have accessed the drug via this route on 23 occasions, according to the figures the Taoiseach gave in the Dail recently.
Why is Vera Twomey forced to travel overseas every three months to secure a prescription for the CBD and THC oils to help prevent her eight-year-old daughter Ava Barry, who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy, having seizures?
It’s a disgrace that many parents like the Cork mother have to make these expensive and timeconsuming journeys in order to help care for their loved ones.
Mr Varadkar was questioned about the lengthy delay recently in the Dail and his response appeared disingenuous.
He claimed there are difficulties in finding a suitable supplier that can produce cannabis to a high enough standard for medicinal purposes.
How is his government facing such difficulties when medicinal cannabis is legally available in many other European countries and in parts of North America?
Could Mr Varadkar – to use Dublin slang – not just score it off the same suppliers all these other countries get it from?
It’s against the rules to use any props like posters during debates in the Dail chamber – but that didn’t stop the Taoiseach from using such an underhanded tactic of producing one to have a pop at the opposition last week.
The poster in question was from a People Before Profit (PBP) meeting held in Co Mayo in March last year and it claimed “cannabis kills cancer”.
Mr Varadkar accused the PBP of recklessly offering people false hope with dangerous claims that could cost lives.
SIDESHOW
This act was a sideshow. His attack was a childish ploy to distract attention from how his government is dragging its heels on this vital health issue.
Seeing as he’s a doctor himself, it makes it all even more perplexing how the Taoiseach the medic has been unable to make any significant progress with this scheme during the past two years.
But, then again, he didn’t appear to make any noteworthy improvements to our deplorable health system during his tenure as Health Minister either.
My gut tells me he wants to kick it into touch until after the next General Election – which, if this transpires to be true, would be morally reprehensible.
During the heated Dail debate, Independent TD Gino Kenny called the Taoiseach “a disgrace” for displaying a poster.
Perhaps such a description is an exaggeration, but Mr Vardakar certainly came across pompous at best.
I believe his problem is that he’s a deeply conservative individual and the Irish political landscape is changing more rapidly than he’s truly comfortable with.
I keel over with laughter anytime he tries to portray himself as a hip liberal like the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. How anybody can buy into this manufactured image is beyond me. The Taoiseach appears to lick his finger and puts it up in the air to see which direction the prevailing political wind is blowing before making a decision.
He is perceived as a great champion of gay rights and has been pictured at events with the rainbow flag draped around his shoulders.
I don’t doubt having a gay Taoiseach has contributed to us becoming a more inclusive society.
But he wasn’t even the first person in Fine Gael to push for marriage equality – that honour falls to Jerry Buttimer. Did you know Mr Varadkar once said he was against same-sex marriage? It’s a long quote, but it should be read in full.
He said: “I have no problem with civil partnership, and that bill is going through the House now, and I’ll be voting for it. I do think that marriage is separate.
“Marriage in our Constitution is very clear that it’s a man marrying a woman, largely with a view to having a natural family, and if they are unable to do that, obviously then they can adopt.
“And I would be of the view that it doesn’t have to be the case for everyone, but that the
preferable construct in a society is the traditional family, and the State through its laws should protect that and promote that.
“And that doesn’t mean to say other people can’t have a different form of relationship, or different choices in their lives, and lots of people do, and that’s fine.
“But I don’t think the government should be neutral on that, and the best thing for – and this would be backed up by evidence – the best thing for children is to be brought up by their father and their mother, a man and a woman, in a stable relationship underwritten by marriage. And I think the State should support that.” Of course, anybody is entitled to change their mind. But isn’t it curious how a gay man would even suggest he wanted to deny same sex-couples marriage equality? He also once stood up in the Dail and said he was against gay couples adopting – and also once made it very clearly he was against abor- tion. These are all views espoused by US President Donald Trump – and not, you would imagine, something you would hear being uttered by a so-called progressive Irish politician, which is how he likes to portray himself to the world media.
Would he have been happy to continue with the status quo if there wasn’t such a huge upswell in support for marriage equality or to repeal the Eighth?
I can imagine historians wrongly portraying him as being a key player in the radical changes we’ve seen – and continue to see – in this new Ireland. Let’s be clear here: it was nameless others who pushed for all these radical changes – like with this latest push now for medicinal cannabis.
Mr Varadkar just happens to be Taoiseach at this historical moment and is happy to take any credit and soak up all the glory.
If an MRI scan was carried out on him, I doubt it would find any backbone. I believe he’s a spineless character willing to disregard once strong held convictions in order to hold on to power.
The Taoiseach swears blind he’ll never go into government with Sinn Fein – but I reckon he would do a deal with the devil if it suited him.