Tinteán

A News Feature by Jeff Kildea

The announcement on 20 March 2024 of Leo Varadkar’s decision to resign as taoiseach came as a shock to the press, the public and many of his colleagues in the Oireachtas. His deputy, Micheál Martin, said Varadkar had told him of his plans only the night before.

At a media conference outside the government buildings, Varadkar explained his decision. Speaking of the coalition’s achievements and the need to protect and build on them, he said:

‘After careful consideration and some soul-searching, I believe a new taoiseach will be better-placed than me to achieve that – to renew and strengthen the top team, to refocus our message and policies, and to drive implementation. After seven years in office, I am no longer the best person for that job. … We have our limitations. We give it everything until we can’t anymore and then we have to move on.’

Anticipating the usual cynical response to a political leader’s voluntary retirement, Varadkar added:

‘I know, inevitably, there will be speculation as to the ‘real reason’ for my decision. These are the real reasons. That’s it. I have nothing else lined up or in mind. No definite personal or political plans, but I am looking forward to having the time to think about them.’

As if to affirm that his decision was made without rancour, he told the media he had enjoyed the role and would wholeheartedly recommend a career in politics to anyone considering it.

It is unusual to see political leaders step down voluntarily – they are usually despatched by the voters or their colleagues beforehand. But in future we might see it happen more often with the unrelenting toll modern politics inflicts on its participants. However, what is remarkable in Varadkar’s case is that at age 45 he is relatively young to be occupying his nation’s top political position let alone be retiring from it.

Born in Dublin on 8 January 1979, Leo Eric Varadkar was the third child of Ashok Varadkar, a medical doctor from Mumbai, India, and Miriam (née Howell), a nurse from Dungarvan, County Waterford. He was educated at the St Francis Xavier national school, Blanchardstown and at The King’s Hospital, a Church of Ireland secondary school in Palmerstown. He briefly studied law at Trinity College Dublin before switching to medicine, graduating in 2003. He did his internship at KEM Hospital in Mumbai before working as a non-consultant hospital doctor at St. James’s Hospital, Dublin and Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown. In 2010 he went into practice as a general practitioner.

He developed an interest in politics at an early age, joining Young Fine Gael when he was 16 and continuing as an active member of the organisation’s branch at TCD. In 1999 he unsuccessfully stood in local elections but four years later was co-opted to Fingal County Council. At the 2004 local elections he won a seat on the council.

His parliamentary career began in 2007 when the 28-year-old Varadkar was elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fine Gael TD for the Dublin West constituency. That same year he was appointed to the opposition front bench as spokesman for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. In 2010 he became the party’s spokesman on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. At the 2011 general election he retained his seat and on the formation of the Fine Gael-Labour Party coalition government, he was appointed Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. In 2014 he was appointed as Minister for Health and following the 2016 general election, which saw Fine Gael enter into minority government, he was appointed Minister for Social Protection.

Varadkar gained a reputation as being somewhat controversial. In 2011 he suggested publicly that, as a result of the continuing effects of the global financial crisis of 2009, Ireland might need a second bailout from the EU or the IMF. In 2016, in one of his final acts as Minister for Health, he cut that year’s budget for mental health care by one third, defending the move as ‘necessary as the funding could be better used elsewhere.’ In his new portfolio he launched a campaign against welfare fraud. Nevertheless, when Enda Kenny resigned as taoiseach in early June 2017, following revelations of corruption and malpractice in the Garda Siochána, Varadkar was elected as Fine Gael leader and on 14 June the Dáil approved his nomination as Ireland’s 14th taoiseach.

At 38 years of age, Varadkar was Ireland’s youngest taoiseach. He was also its first mixed-race premier, its first government leader not to be a practising Catholic, and its first openly gay head of government. As if to further emphasise his break with the Ireland of old, one of Varadkar’s first acts as taoiseach was to announce a referendum on abortion to be held the following year.

After a shaky start in which the ongoing Garda affair claimed the scalp of the tánaiste (deputy leader), Frances Fitzgerald, Varadkar’s approval rating began to rise, eventually reaching 60 per cent. Apart from the success of the abortion referendum, which passed with 66 per cent of votes, his popularity was due in large measure to his handling of the Brexit negotiations in which Ireland punched well above its weight. Skilful Irish diplomacy ensured that the European Union did not throw Ireland under the bus. Instead, as the two superpowers slugged it out, the EU stood by Ireland, especially over its insistence that there be no hard border on the island of Ireland. When the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, threatened to scuttle the negotiations, Varadkar met with him in October 2019 at Thornton Manor, outside Liverpool. After their 90-minute talk, Johnson declared, ‘We’ve agreed’. Thus the deadlock was broken and the Northern Ireland Protocol was born. Under its new name, the Windsor Framework, it continues to ensure that the island of Ireland remains free of a hard border.

As legendary Australian politician Fred Daly once observed, in politics you can be a rooster one day and a feather duster the next. And so it was that when the general election was held in February 2020, Varadkar’s party won only 35 seats, 15 less than 2016, leaving it in third place behind Fianna Fáil (38) and Sinn Féin (37). Opposition seemed inevitable but after months of negotiation, a coalition government emerged. It comprised Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party, an extraordinary ensemble of the two major parties, whose rivalry dates back to the civil war, and a new-age environmental party. Yet, after taking office on 27 June 2020, it has proved to be more stable than many had predicted.

Pursuant to the coalition agreement, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin served as taoiseach until 17 December 2022 with Varadkar as tánaiste. Then the two men swapped positions. But, until the coalition agreement came into force, Varadkar continued to serve as taoiseach in a caretaker capacity. During that time, he led the country well through the early months of the Covid pandemic. By the time he handed over to Martin his approval rating was at 75 per cent.

During Varadkar’s second term, the country recovered from the economic shock of the pandemic. As a result, the Irish economy has done well, achieving full employment and budget surpluses. However, as with the rest of the world, the cost-of-living crisis has taken its toll, with housing and health care seeming to be in permanent crisis. Although Ireland generously took in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, mismanagement of the program has angered affected communities, leading in some cases to civil disorder. A poll in February 2024 showed his approval rating at 40 per cent. Heavy defeats in the two referendums on the family in early March dented Varadkar’s reputation for remaking Ireland as “a more equal and more modern place”. A fortnight later he resigned.

Varadkar will be remembered as a clear-thinking, policy-oriented, straight-talking politician – though some might call him gaffe-prone. He led Ireland calmly and with confidence through the abortion referendum, the Brexit negotiations, and the early stages of the pandemic. Yet he leaves office with his party in the doldrums. Fine Gael’s electoral support is in steady decline and ten of its TDs have said they will retire at the next election due by March 2025. A circuit breaker was needed to turn the party’s fortunes around and Varadkar provided it.

Whether his successor, Simon Harris, who at 37 is even younger than Varadkar was on assuming office, can do more than save the furniture is yet to be seen. Meanwhile, like Jacinda Ardern, Mark McGowen, and Annastacia Palaszczuk, Leo Varadkar joins that growing band of young, burnt-out premiers who have made the decision: it’s time.

Jeff Kildea

Dr Jeff Kildea is an Honorary Professor in Irish Studies at the University of New South Wales and an historian of early 20th-century Australia. He is the author of Hugh Mahon: Patriot, Pressman, Politician (Anchor Books Australia, 2020)

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