Varadkar’s f irst project as Taoiseach… take a holiday

THE first act of Leo Varadkar’s government will be – to go on holidays for a month.

The Tánaiste is set to be re-elected as Taoiseach on December 15 when he is due to rotate roles with Micheál Martin, after which they and Green leader Eamon Ryan will announce the line-up of the new Cabinet.

But even though it is only October, a memo sent by the Dáil to all TDs and senators this week announced the next item of business will be a leisurely five weeks of holidays from December 16 to January 15 next year. The recess, coming at a time when Mr Varadkar will be stamping his authority on his reshuffled Cabinet, is causing some unease within Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil.

One Fine Gael source told the Irish Mail on Sunday: ‘No one, not even Sinn Féin or the socialists are going to argue for shorter holidays, but we could be in the middle of an ongoing hyperinflation crisis or tipping into recession. We don’t know. Nothing is certain and this is not a time for dawdling along. Three weeks would be fine but five…’

A Fianna Fáil grandee said: ‘Are they serious? Is this how the great new Government intends to start off. Day one: hello everyone, now I am off on my holidays.’

The Christmas recess will follow a three-month summer break and another week off for Halloween.

One Fine Gael TD said: ‘It is a feature of governments in office that they do prefer to spend an ever lower amount of time in the Dáil listening to their critics, but this is utterly tone deaf. At a time like this the people want their politicians to be at their desks. They want that sense of security.’

One explanation which will be proffered for the long recess is that ministers will be reading themselves into their new briefs.

However, one unimpressed Fine Gael source, who is not anticipating promotion, said, ‘That will hardly cut the mustard. It is not exactly a first-term newbie. How much time does Micheál need to learn to be Tánaiste? They can miss the Bond movie and read themselves in. Governments don’t go on holidays in the middle of an economic war and a real war, for a month.’

A Government source said TDs holidays are ultimately decided by the order of business, adding, ‘Let’s see how keen they are for less down-time. They might experience an Enda Kenny moment.’

This was a reference to an early event in Mr Kenny’s first administration in 2011, when the new Taoiseach slashed the Christmas holiday time from six weeks to three weeks.