WELL, LOOK. LEO Varadkar was never exactly known for a deft, diplomatic hand in bringing different classes of people together, was he?

Having made a name for himself as Minister for Social Expenditure with his infamous ‘Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All’ campaign, the former Taoiseach raised the hackles of many across Ireland this week by suggesting that taxes paid by those who live in urban areas subsidise the livelihoods of those who live and work in rural areas, particularly those in agriculture.

Just as the tensions around the Easter ‘fuel protests’ (protests which encompassed several other confusing, incoherent, and in many cases, clearly far-right agendas) had begun to simmer down, Leo Varadkar popped back up to tell the farmers that they should actually be more grateful for all the hard work done by us city-slickers. It went down precisely as well as you’d think.

Varadkar has since qualified the remarks, which didn’t work out for him either, as Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice slammed him for dithering on his original comment. Speaking on Virgin Media’s Tonight Show this week, Fitzmaurice said: ‘If you say something and you believe in it, what are you apologising for? If he believes that, you stick your ground.’ And let’s be real here, Leo Varadkar does believe it, acknowledging only that he ‘went too far’ and maintaining that many of his points are still valid. 

Varadkar’s attitude is compatible with the philosophy of Fine Gael under his leadership and beyond. It’s a worldview that conceptualises us all as living in an economy, rather than a society. Rather than working together to bring about positive collective outcomes, we should be counting the beans on who owes what to whom,........

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