Quote of the week from Leo Varadkar: “The big difference that I find, going to other parts of the world, is that it’s much easier to get a ride, essentially.”
Speak for yourself, Leo.
The Tánaiste was taking questions after the launch of his proposals on a living wage when he was asked about the shortage of taxis around Dublin city. He agreed it was difficult to get a cab at the moment because of the post-pandemic “snap back in demand” for services. One of the problems here is that there aren’t other services such as Uber or Lyft available, he mused. As a result it is “much easier to get a ride” in other countries.
He quickly realised what he had said.
“Yeah, er, no, no, to get a car ride. To get a car ride.”
But that didn’t sound right either.
“Okay, I’ll do that again.” He abandoned his answer and started afresh.
Perhaps Leo was still feeling a bit discombobulated by the experience when he returned to the Dáil to take Leaders’ Questions, because he tore into Pearse Doherty with extraordinary venom. Sinn Féin’s finance spokesman linked his questions on the cost-of-living crisis to a private dinner the Fine Gael leader hosted the night before to celebrate a decade in power.
“Cheap shot,” retorted Varadkar. That dinner was to thank former ministers for their years of service and there was no public money involved, he said, lambasting Sinn Féin’s hypocrisy in criticising other parties for holding domestic fundraisers while hosting €1,000-a-plate dinners in the US for wealthy supporters, with the party leader flying first-class to attend them.
“That’s what Sinn Féin does in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis,” he fumed, invoking an image of Mary Lou McDonald “clinking Champagne glasses” on her upcoming “first-class trip to Australia” to schmooze with Trinity alumni down under.
He was not about to take any lectures from the party that accepted “millions in donations from vagabonds who live in a caravan” (a reference to a €1.7 million bequest) and is “one of the biggest landlords in the State, owning 50 properties”.
Only 50?
[ Opinion: Varadkar’s studs-up tackle on Doherty a sign of things to comeOpens in new window ]
Aontú's TD, Peadar Tóibín, who was a Sinn Féin member for 21 years before quitting in 2018, told the Dáil last month that “Sinn Féin has over 100 properties in the State at the moment. I would suggest that maybe Sinn Féin gift some of their properties to the State ... People shouldn’t ask others to do what they wouldn’t do themselves.”
Varadkar’s bare-knuckle display on Thursday won approval from green-eyed government colleagues who find it hard to stomach Sinn Féin’s well-honed ragged-trousered-republicans shtick while their organisation sits on a huge property portfolio and is rolling in money.
However, during exceptionally acrimonious exchanges, the Tánaiste undermined his indignant howling about cheap shots and personalised remarks from the Donegal TD by dredging up a 1999 court case involving a 21-year-old Doherty and fellow members of Ógra Sinn Féin who were arrested and charged with abusing a garda on O’Connell Street in Dublin. This was in response to Doherty reminding the House that the Fine Gael leader was under investigation over the leaking of a confidential document.
“You only got away without a conviction because of your age at the time,” harrumphed Leo, using young Doherty’s run-in with the cops to highlight “the huge number of convicted criminals” in Sinn Féin “and your wider republican family”, along with the party’s known “attitude to rapes and paedophiles”.
Leo Varadkar had more than enough ammo to throw at Pearse and his party — which has more skeletons than there are cupboards to hide them — without having to scrape the barrel with the hardly unusual case of a young Shinner barely out of his teens roaring abuse at the rozzers all of 23 years ago. Isn’t that just what they did back then?
Careful now, Leo. Given Sinn Féin’s growing lead in the opinion polls, Fine Gael’s acute exasperation might start looking like desperation.
Micheál achieves what Jack Lynch could not
People in Cork could be forgiven for wondering if there’s a general election in the offing with all the sightings of Micheál Martin around the city in the past week. He left Leo behind to look after the shop and what happens? He only goes and gets into an unmerciful scrap with Pearse Doherty while the President has a run-in with a Nigerian bishop before blowing a headline-diverting gasket over the housing crisis.
And when he was at home, Micheál was making sure not get dragged into any controversy — studiously sidestepping media questions about Michael D’s comments and Leo’s fireworks — showing the sort of adroit footwork that made his late father Paddy a champion boxer.
Micheál recalled Paddy “The Champ” Martin during a visit to Cork City Hall on Wednesday, when he became the first sitting Taoiseach to ever address Cork City Council — not even Jack Lynch, a team-mate of his da’s on St Nick’s football team, was accorded that honour.
Credit for the invite goes to former Fine Gael lord mayor Joe Kavanagh, and the mood was generally collegial and friendly, save for dignified walkouts by veteran Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan and Solidarity councillor Fiona Ryan, who both highlighted the housing and cost-of-living crises facing families.
On his way into Cork City Hall, Micheál accepted a letter from Families Unite for Services and Support (FUSS), who wanted to highlight the collapse in disability services for children while the newly formed Cork Neutrality League also raised their concerns about jettisoning Irish neutrality. It was a family affair for Micheál, who was accompanied by his wife, Mary, two of their children and loads of relations. He was in nostalgic mood, remembering that famous night in City Hall when his father beat the British Commonwealth champion Joe Bygraves, in a fight that had fans hanging from the rafters.
“City Hall in Cork has always been a special place for me and my family — it was here in the hall below us that my late father fought many of his great boxing fights, earning him the nickname ‘The Champ’, which we were always very proud of,” he recalled. “Legend has it that Bygraves later claimed it was a hometown decision — my father always denied that — but later on it was very useful when I was knocking on doors in Turners Cross and Ballyphehane looking for votes when I could say I was The Champ’s son.” Micheál cut his teeth in the chamber. He said Joe Boyle, father of former Green Party TD and current councillor Dan, had been an important political mentor, first persuading him to run for Cork Corporation in the late 1980s.
If Micheál was in a generous mood recalling the advice he got from a succession of former political heavyweights on Leeside such as Danny Wallace, John Dennehy, Toddy O’Sullivan, Gerry O’Sullivan and Jim Corr, Dan Boyle was in equally generous mood when it came to responding.
Dan, a Turners Cross boy and a past pupil of Coláiste Chríost Rí like Micheál, pointed out that he was also a member of the council in the early 1990s when Micheál was elected lord mayor of Cork, and he praised him. Music fan Dan, who has released an album of original material, told the Taoiseach that while he doesn’t bear grudges in politics, he still hasn’t forgiven him for failing to invite him to a private mayoral reception for Cork guitarist Rory Gallagher.
Norris hangs in Leinster House
There was a lovely Bloomsday surprise for Father of the Seanad and Joycean scholar David Norris on Thursday when his portrait was hung on the wall in one of the busiest corridors in Leinster House.
It was completed last year by artist Will Nathans and jointly unveiled by Ceann Comhairle of the Dáil Seán Ó Fearghaíl and Cathaoirleach of the Seanad Mark Daly.
Tradition has it that portraits of distinguished parliamentarians aren’t hung until the person has retired or died. It took a special ruling by the Oireachtas Art and Portraiture Committee (who knew?) after months of campaigning by Daly and Independent Senator Victor Boyhan for Norris’s bonce to go up on the wall next to the main staircase on the corridor leading to the restaurants and the Dáil bar.
The longest continuously serving Senator in the Upper House thought he was coming in to move his Protection of Built Heritage Bill but he was steered away from the chamber in the direction of a waiting hanging committee — not normally a welcome sight.
There were a few speeches and the veteran gay rights campaigner was presented with a huge bouquet of flowers in the rainbow colours put together by flower seller Mags on Baggot Street.
And speaking of Bloomsday, EU commissioner for economy Paolo Gentiloni looked delighted with himself and his fancy new copy of Ulysses at Thursday after the Eurogroup press conference in Luxembourg.
Paschal Donohoe, who chairs the group of EU finance ministers, presented all his colleagues with a copy of Joyce’s novel to mark the centenary of its publication. It was his little Bloomsday gift to them, with each book translated into the language of its recipient.
Bookworm Paschal has fallen head over heels for Ulysses since he ploughed through it during lockdown. Unfortunately, due to his Eurogroup commitments he was unable to take part in Dublin’s Bloomsday celebration, when parts of the capital become no-go areas for a day as marauding bands of middle-aged men in loud jackets stagger from hostelry to hostelry belching Burgundy and stout fumes while loudly declaiming passages from Ulysses in put-on Dubalin accents.
We hear the finance ministers were thrilled by Paschal’s generous gesture, but not thrilled enough to help get his pet project — a European banking union — over the line.
Fleming walks into an ambush
Fianna Fáil’s Sean Fleming thought he was going for a quick bite to eat with his wife on Wednesday night, but when he walked into the Members’ Restaurant, he was ambushed by his brothers and sisters and the wider Fleming clan, who had gathered to mark his 25th year in Leinster House.
“I knew nothing about it. I couldn’t believe it when I saw everyone,” said the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, who was first elected in 1997 with the intake of 22 first-time Fianna Fáil deputies.
Just three of that number are still TDs: Fleming (Laois-Offaly), Michael Moynihan (Cork North West) and John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny), although we see that former minister Mary Hanafin, who also made the breakthrough in 1997, is still plugging way. She was elected Cathaoirleach of Dún Laoghaire Rathdown County Council on Monday night.
The surprise party was organised by Sean’s wife, Mary, and after dinner the crowd repaired to the bar where Senator Malcolm Byrne made an impromptu speech and the Minister gave a short reply with the advice to always keep your speeches short and to always remember that “the most important election is the next one”.
