Varadkar out of touch

THE Taoiseach’s ill-informed comments about Christmas hospital rosters are debunked in this newspaper today by a nurse who explains exactly how onerous her duties and responsibilities are over the holiday period. Contrast that with Mr Varadkar’s record as minister for health when he went on holidays twice over Christmas. If he couldn’t lead by example back then it does not serve him well now to double-down on an outburst with no basis in fact. He has talked of the emergency in the health service that Christmas always brings. With around 500 patients on hospital trolleys every day, we are long past the emergency stage anyway.