Two weeks since becoming Taoiseach and it is already clear that the message emanating from Leo Varadkar’s actions is ‘here’s the new boss, same as the old boss’.
The appointment of former Attorney General Máire Whelan as Judge in the Court of Appeals, echoes the ‘jobs for the boys’ days of Bertie Ahern and the blatant “cute whoorism” that pervaded the upper echelons of politics in those days.
The continuing saga in regards to the investigations of never ending revelations of Garda corruption and mal practice rolls on unabated with no one being held accountable, least of all Commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan who’s incompetence seems eclipsed only by her arrogance. No intervention by the new Taoiseach seems to be on the cards with this pressing issue of national importance, as per standard practice.
However the real villain in perpetuating this charade is not Varadkar or the Fine Gael parliamentary Party, who ignored their own grass roots in electing him as leader and subsequently as Taoiseach. The real villain is cowardice, cowardice on the part of Micheál Martin and Fianna Fáil in not grasping the nettle and forcing a general election, so that the Citizens of Ireland can decide who will lead the country.
However as the political landscape shifts and knives come out in his own party, no less perhaps Varadkar’s tenure as Taoiseach might not be as long as he had hoped.
It may be hailed in the international press and some short sighted media figures in Ireland as a triumph of progressivism to see Leo Varadkar become Ireland’s first gay Taoiseach but that is not an excuse to give him a free pass. He may have been at the front of the Pride Parade 2017, but I don’t think Taoiseach Varadkar will be seen at the next march for homeless, the elderly, the sick and disabled.
That would be beneath our esteemed new Taoiseach from Castleknock.