FOR SOMEONE WHO has often referenced his relatively brief medical career, Leo Varadkar always seemed to have his sights set on the biggest job in Irish politics.
While studying medicine in TCD, Varadkar took the time to join Young Fine Gael and ended up becoming Vice President of the EPP’s youth wing, telling RTÉ while still in college that he wanted to be Minister for Health.
He went on to intern in Washington DC as part of the Washington Ireland Programme before steadily climbing the ranks of Fine Gael, becoming a councillor at 25 and a TD at 28.
WATCH: 20 year old medical student Leo Varadkar is not from a political family but does have political ambitions he tells @RTENews #OnThisDay in 1999 https://t.co/HzIiHswVFt
— RTÉ Archives (@RTEArchives) April 13, 2019
When elected as a TD in 2007 he took no time at all in picking a fight with the biggest beast in the room, being only a week in the Dáil before calling then taoiseach Bertie Ahern “both devious and cunning”.
Ahern was stung by the criticism, taking to a national newspaper to suggest that the new deputy “who isn’t a wet day in the place” would get an “early exit”.
If Ahern was suggesting that Varadkar would soon be on the way out he was wrong, by about 18 years.
Earlier today, the now Taoiseach Leo Varadkar confirmed he would be stepping down from the role both he and Ahern have held, to pass the baton to a Fine Gael successor.
People may debate for some time whether he fits the adage that all political careers end in failure, but Varadkar has at least called an end to his leadership at a time of his choosing.
Leadership
Varadkar became Taoiseach in June 2017 after Enda Kenny stepped aside, defeating Simon Coveney in a leadership contest to succeed the Mayo man.
That contest in early summer was over before it ever really started, with Varadkar hoovering up endorsements from a parliamentary party which then, as now, hold most of the voting weight.
Even though Coveney managed to comprehensively win the vote among ordinary members, Varadkar was elected as Fine Gael leader and then as Taoiseach, the first of two times he would hold the office.
The early days of Varadkar’s first stint as Taoiseach were in many ways marked by the novelty of having a Taoiseach that genuinely held international interest.
His election as Taoiseach was met with global headlines about Ireland having a gay prime minister with an Indian background and a month later he featured on the cover of Time Magazine.
There is no doubt that Varadkar leaned into the attention, wearing novelty socks to match a trait of his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau and perhaps more excruciatingly referencing Love Actually during his first visit to Downing Street.
Whether he went over the top or not in using his relative political celebrity, Varadkar’s notoriety was clearly a useful tool when Ireland became central to the intractable Brexit debate that was engulfing the European Union.
The small matter of the Irish border became the major sticking point in negotiations as the UK went down the road of a hard Brexit and Varadkar was a central presence.
So much so that he became a borderline hate figure among some sections of the British media, with unionists in Northern Ireland also regularly criticising his interventions.
In December 2017, the Brexit backstop was agreed ensuring “regulatory alignment” on the island of Ireland, something Varadkar described as “politically bullet-proof”.
While Varadkar’s stance in Europe was clear and was largely supported, it was back home where he perhaps struggled to successfully land his message.
His campaign for the leadership of Fine Gael coincided with his controversial campaign against welfare fraud as Minister for Social Protection.
The ‘Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All’ campaign was criticised from within the department as being a “solo run” by Varadkar and the claims of potential savings it would bring were dubious to say the least.
And while the campaign has long been held against Varadkar as evidence of his unapologetic neoliberalism, polling from the time suggested it was largely popular among the Irish public.
In many ways it was an example of both Varadkar’s appeal and perhaps the limits of it.
Styling himself as being a true blue Fine Gael leader with the conservative economic chops to back it up, Varadkar had also sought to appeal to socially progressive voters.
It was a fine line to tread and it’s fair analysis to say that it hasn’t often been successful. A disappointing general election in 2020 and losing five by-elections from five can probably attest to that.
Spinning around
Early in his tenure as Taoiseach, Varadkar sought to overhaul the government’s messaging with the establishment of the Strategic Communications Unit.
The SCU was controversial from the beginning due to its cost and being viewed as taxpayer-funded spin.
It ultimately foundered over its involvement in the placing of government ads in local newspapers and the ditching of the SCU was an early dent to how Varadkar had hoped to sell his policies to the public.
Yes and No
In 2018, Varadkar’s government had the significant success of holding the Eighth Amendment referendum and passing it, navigating an emotive issue that had dogged successive governments.
Varadkar’s past comments an abortion were frequently raised during the course of the campaign.
He had previously said that he was opposed to legalising abortion and that he considered himself “pro-life”, while also saying that women’s lives were put at risk by the Eighth Amendment.
Depending on where you sit, the differing views are either Varadkar being cynical in seeing which way the wind was blowing, or an echo of how the public’s views also shifted over time.
In that referendum campaign, personal stories were to the fore in making the case for change – it was people rather that politicians what won it.
Such personal stories were much rarer in the recent double referendum, which saw proposals that were championed by Varadkar roundly defeated.
Varadkar did not cover himself in glory during the campaign, with an interview on The Six O’Clock Show in which he displayed his unfortunate habit of appearing uncaring or disconnected from the lives of ordinary people.
This habit has reared its head on a number of occasions, such as when he was forced to express “regret” to women affected by the Cervicalcheck scandal after saying that none would have to go to court for redress.
Although his comments were likely made in good faith, his clunky promise followed him for a number of years.
On homelessness, the unambiguous failure of Fine Gael’s 13 years in government, Varadkar has on occasion also put his foot in it.
Last year, he came under fire for saying lots of people in emergency accommodation “refuse multiple offers to go on social housing” and earlier this year he suggested that first-time buyers buy cheaper second-hand homes.
One of the quirks of Varadkar’s combined 4+ years in the top job is that he’ll arguably be most remembered for the four months in 2020 when he was a caretaker Taoiseach.
After the February 2020 general election and the ambiguous result it threw up, Varadkar served on as Taoiseach until the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil-Green coalition was formed in June.
In the interim, the world was turned upside by the spread of Covid-19 and Ireland locked down for the first time, with Varadkar famously announcing the news from a lectern in Washington DC.
It’s a strange coincidence, or perhaps not, that one of his last major engagements as Taoiseach was in that same city last week when he met with President Joe Biden in the White House.
Varadkar told The Journal this evening that, while he’d been mulling it for some time, he only “definitively” made his mind to quit at the weekend in Washington DC, informing his staff first of the news.
Two of his biggest decisions made four years apart, each momentous in their own way, what’s next is anyone’s guess.
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