An epic challenge awaits our weak, callow leader

MAJOR political crises like Brexit come along maybe once in a generation for this Republic: the Arms Trial in 1970 and the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 were the ultimate test of leadership for Jack Lynch and Bertie Ahern. Now the fickle finger of fate has beckoned to Leo Varadkar, who will have been Taoiseach for six months on December 14 when a crucial EU summit meets to discuss Brexit.

His judgment in handling Brexit – rather than the novelty the international media found in his heritage and sexuality – will determine how history remembers Mr Varadkar.

Hyperventilating spin-doctors could not over-dramatise the potential consequences for Ireland of Britain leaving the EU – and the challenge it will present for the Taoiseach.

The political management of Brexit will be crucial. And Varadkar’s emotional intelligence and maturity will be just as important as his intellect when he is negotiating the crisis for the next generation of Irish children.

‘Cometh the hour, cometh the Leo’ would be an appropriately glib description if the Taoiseach hadn’t shown such skewed judgment just last week dealing with the hapless Frances Fitzgerald.

Alas, Varadkar stumbled at the first test. The evidence pointed to Fitzgerald as impossibly naive at best, very stupid or wickedly disingenuous by another view.

Yet the Taoiseach ignored the overwhelming proof of Fitzgerald’s ineptitude, insisting she was the victim of coincidence, anomalies and political opportunists.

If he were standing by his woman for political purposes, it would be easier to understand his political cynicism. But then Varadkar and his party never accept responsibility for their errors and are always ready to lay the blame on someone else (civil servants are easy targets).

Choosing allies in the EU through Brexit will not be easy: Britain, historically our strongest ally, helped fend off French attacks on the cornerstone of our economic policy, a 12.5% corporate tax rate. N OW Europeans are swearing loyalty to us as an EU member and hissing curses at Britain – but when they are gone and we are isolated, the same Europeans will back French president Emmanuel Macron’s plan for us to harmonise Irish corporation tax with the EU.

It is a time for cool heads and slow handshakes: Angela Merkel is weakened but Macron and JeanClaude Juncker are waving the flag of EU federalism with tax harmonisation and a single eurozone budget and finance minister.

The DUP is queuing up to throw insults and accusations at the Taoiseach, and that party’s refusal to attend the Stormont Assembly with Sinn Féin means everything is blocked there.

The DUP’s threats to walk away from Theresa May’s Tory government ring hollow: Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party in office is the DUP’s darkest nightmare. The party is clearly rattled by stories of a commitment from Britain to ‘avoid regulatory divergence’ between the north and south of Ireland.

And the DUP must be wondering how deeply 21st century Conservatives are attached to the unionist tag in the full party name.

It is also difficult to see the DUP’s logic in refusing any ‘special’ status that would give Northern Ireland a marked economic advantage over other areas of the UK. Presumably it is not an ethical objection given that the DUP is in a minority within Northern Ireland that favours Brexit.

Leaving the Customs Union and the Single Market, as the DUP is demanding, will inevitably lead to a hard border and all the potential difficulties that would bring.

The loss of European Arrest Warrants would make it much more difficult for police on both sides of the border to tackle organised crime. G EORGE HAMILTON, the PSNI chief constable, made a written submission to the House of Lords inquiry examining Brexit. He outlined the unique risks along Northern Ireland’s 500km porous land border with the Republic. Dissident Republican terrorists and organised crime gangs move weapons, explosives, personnel and finances between jurisdictions in order that attacks can be conducted and the various groups can advance their aims, he said.

The existence of border controls would also be likely ‘to be used by dissident-republican groups as a rationale for continuing violence,’ added Mr Hamilton.

While Mr Varadkar has read all the books to help him deal with a British prime minister, a decade in the Dáil is no base camp from which to face down DUP fundamentalists.

Apparently Theresa May was disarmed by Varadkar’s enthusiasm when they first met at No.10 Downing Street, but Arlene Foster will be a tougher nut to crack.

The last time the Tories looked so out of touch was in 1997 when Tony Blair was ready to fire up Britain again with New Labour.

Now May appears to be prime minister as no one else wants the job, and the Conservative Party is a spent salmon.

Jeremy Corbyn is odds-on to be the next prime minister, although his Labour Party is traditionally deeply suspicious of low taxes.

We are on our own: old allies in Britain are gone and our new friends in the EU want to take away our most treasured economic asset: the 12.5% corporate tax rate.

We are facing into future with a Taoiseach who entered the Dáil just a decade ago as an incurably curious and ambitious 28-year-old.

Through the past 10 days of the Fitzgerald fiasco, he looked immature and impetuous compared to the statesman-like demeanour of Micheál Martin. It was the Fianna Fáil leader who helped the Taoiseach back away from his foolish threats of an election for which he would have been blamed.

Foreign media seized upon his gauche mistakes and cast him as an ingénue pretty boy with no sense of the occasion or history.

Varadkar needs to pay less attention to his image consultants and spend some time getting over himself while reuniting with his humility.

His blinkered defence of Frances Fitzgerald exposed his feet of clay but there is no one in Fine Gael capable of filling his big boots – except maybe Varadkar himself after a period of reflection.