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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Ingredients for happier marriage between the United Kingdom and Ireland are there
Next year will mark a decade from Britain's European Union exit. If a week is a long time in politics, so goes the cliche, then 10 years should feel like an eternity. Plenty of time, then, for Ireland and the United Kingdom to drop all those hostilities fomented over the Brexit years. At its peak, 2018 and 2019, Leo Varadkar was cast as villain-in-chief to the British state, while Ireland had its own fair share of schadenfreude to lob over the Irish Sea. Both bear responsibility for the collapse in that once-friendly acquaintance. Now everyone with any eyes on the Anglo-Irish relationship will earnestly tell you things have improved since then, the nadir is over, what's past is past, et cetera. They are right, but they are neglecting to mention that things could still be much better, that the wound has not entirely healed. Instead of open upset, a stilted distance between these oldest and closest neighbours is still lingering. READ MORE Maybe it is just a matter of time. Britain's Labour Party and the Government parties here were talking to one another months before Labour was even elected last July. Keir Starmer's party understood the importance of fostering a functional and amenable relationship, more so than the Conservatives managed to reckon with (or wanted to reckon with). There are the obvious facts to contend with: Starmer was forged by his experience advising the PSNI in the 2000s and his closest adviser is a Cork man. The ingredients for a happier marriage are there. (There were some in the Conservative administration who really got it, who understood that Brexit was destined for a muddled fudge so long as Ireland was cast aside as a secondary concern, but they were outnumbered and hardly helped by a media landscape that liked to refer to Varadkar as a naive patsy of the bloc among some harsher words too.) So, what to do now? The UK is 'resetting' its relationship with the EU, seeking that vague notion of 'closer ties' and striking more concrete agreements on fishing, trade, defence and energy. But the movements of this month are not the beginning and end of the UK's EU conversation: there are plenty of policy areas floating around in need of reappraisal. Here, the Coalition, in some form or another, ought to be Starmer's closest ally and conduit with the Continent. What's in it for us? There are all the sentimental reasons, of course. The 'oldest and closest' neighbours adage does tug on the heart strings in our more mawkish and less practical moments. After such a difficult, protracted and bloody period – 800 years, some like to say – the triumph of the Belfast Agreement and the depth of goodwill generated thereafter should not be lost to a petty squabble over the EU's customs union (surely). We have – and sorry for the second cliche – more in common than divides us. File under statements that are true, banal and important. But we can harden our hearts around some cold realpolitik (Ireland has always been good at balancing the sentimental 'land of saints and scholars' woolliness and the harsh practicalities of a small, rich, capitalistic economy). Predicting the movements of Donald Trump is no safer than playing roulette; Ireland has lost its golden child status in Washington; the entire model could be upended. We don't know. But in Europe and in Britain there is some certainty: Trump and Vladimir Putin have proven the logic of closer union on the Continent, Ireland can help facilitate it. This is precisely what a small nation with a population of sub-10 million can do well. It is the most likely locus of Ireland's future impact. The Government has had a stuttering start with foreign policy focused on Israel, neutrality and trying to mitigate the unmitigable Trump. People are welcome to make the moral case on all three. But the practical case is harder to accept. Neutrality is not a recipe for popularity with Europe at a time when Ireland needs friends. When it comes to Israel and Gaza , the realities of a horrifying war shouldn't be ignored, but Ireland is not a big enough player to make any meaningful difference (even the EU as a bloc is going to struggle to cohere around a single political line on the question). In the UK's reset there is an opportunity for Ireland to take a leading role and contribute positively rather than posturing into the void. On Brexit, Ireland has the institutional experience and the negotiating talent. Ireland's influence in the bloc has waned in recent years – but few argue that it is impossible to wrest it back. Starmer is going to face a slew of Brexit ideologues claiming that he is betraying the UK's democratic will by edging closer to the Continent. But if he can sell the turn towards Europe he can finally look like a prime minister somewhat in control of his country's direction of travel. Ireland can do the same by acting where it matters. Small, dynamic, popular – these are assets, and it is unclear to me why Ireland is so resistant to using them.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Leo Varadkar: The EU needs to ‘grow a bit of backbone' and stand up to Israel
Summits of the EU 's 27 national leaders take place every few months and usually kick off on a Thursday. When Leo Varadkar was attending as taoiseach he was always happier when they started earlier in the week. 'It was great on the rare occasion that you had to be away on a Tuesday or Wednesday, because then you got to avoid Leaders' Questions [in the Dáil],' the former Fine Gael leader tells me. Very few heads of government take questions from the Opposition 'twice a week for several hours', he says. 'It's mostly just theatre, I didn't particularly like it.' More than a year on from his political exit, Varadkar sat down to chat about European politics. We spoke last week, the day after the European Union agreed to a review of its trade agreement with Israel , following growing concern over the war in Gaza . READ MORE This review was something that Varadkar and Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez first called for in February 2024. At the time they were ignored. 'I feel more angry than vindicated, because Pedro and I went out on a limb on that and we had very few supporters at the time,' Varadkar says. It was depressing that so many Palestinians had to be killed before other European governments came around to Ireland's position, he says. 'The time has come for the European Union to grow a bit of backbone. I hope this is the start of it.' The EU-Israel association agreement, which includes a free trade deal, is seen as a key piece of leverage with which to exert pressure on Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu 's government. The EU should suspend the accord even if a fresh ceasefire is negotiated between Israel and Hamas militants, according to Varadkar. Israel portrays itself as a western liberal democracy, but is 'none of those things', the former Fine Gael leader says. Varadkar feels European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen gets too hard a time in Ireland over the misstep she made in the days after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023. Comments by the German politician were seen as offering unqualified support for how Israel saw fit to respond. [ Leo Varadkar has more to offer than reality TV shows or doling out PR advice to mega-rich clients Opens in new window ] 'I spoke to her about it and I told her: 'This isn't going to go down well in large parts of Europe',' Varadkar recalls. 'I think since then she's been much more circumspect and careful ... She's a friend of Ireland, and Ireland has done well by the position she's taken on Brexit ,' he says. Brexit comes up several times. The negotiations to sort out the UK's exit from the EU were a big part of Varadkar's first term as taoiseach. It influenced a lot of his thinking during summits of EU leaders, including how he handled Hungary's far-right prime minister Viktor Orban and Poland's then-hard-right government. 'There was an attempt by the British to seek support from Poland and Hungary ... I was kind of limited in my scope for righteousness, given that I needed Hungary and Poland not to be a problem on Brexit, and they weren't,' he says. What's it like inside the room during those summits? 'It's just you in there, there's no officials,' Varadkar says. Leaders still message their entourage of advisers and officials waiting outside the room, though sometimes mobile phones have to stay outside as well. The legwork to tee up a policy shift is done by diplomats in the weeks leading up to a summit. 'The good thing is that it's often just the big decisions and the final calls that are left to the leaders,' he says. [ Varadkar: marriage-equality vote result and hospice opening made my best day in politics Opens in new window ] The need to unanimously agree on foreign policy decisions means one rogue leader – such as Orban – can hold everything up. The Hungarian leader has repeatedly used this veto power to block financial and military support for Kyiv in the Ukraine war. Varadkar does not believe the solution is to just take more decisions by majority vote. 'Maybe make it so that one country can't block something, or two countries can't block something,' he says. We're talking in the cafe of the Sofitel, a five-star Brussels hotel down the road from the EU institutions. National leaders in the European People's Party (EPP) , the centre-right grouping that includes Fine Gael, all breakfast here on the morning of a summit. Varadkar, who stepped down as taoiseach in April last year, says these European political groupings are much more influential than many people realise, even politicians in his own party. 'Any time people talked about Fine Gael becoming too liberal or too left-leaning for the EPP, I took a very contrary view. This is the most influential group, the biggest bloc, it's good for Fine Gael and good for Ireland to be in it,' he says. It's hard to tell whether Varadkar secretly misses being in the thick of it all. He definitely doesn't miss Leaders' Questions.
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Health
- Irish Times
Covid inquiry: Holohan, Varadkar unlikely to give public evidence for review about ‘learning lessons'
Leading figures involved in managing the Republic's response to the pandemic are unlikely to face a public grilling as part of the State's evaluation of the crisis. The Covid-19 independent evaluation, an expert panel established by the last government, today launched a public consultation inviting submissions on people's experiences of the period. However, its chair, Prof Anne Scott, said it was unlikely that figures such as former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan or the taoisaigh in power at the height of the crisis – Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin – would give evidence in public. She said senior figures such as the chief medical officer and the minister for health had been on TV screens every night during the pandemic. She said she did not think the review 'requires us to actually rerun that'. READ MORE 'This isn't about really living in the past. It is about learning lessons,' she said. The public had a 'benign perspective' on decision makers who had to balance different factors when managing the response, Prof Scott said. The evaluation is 'not focused on individual accountability' but instead will consider 'the structures, processes, frameworks that are in place'. It is understood that while interviews with key decision makers will be recorded, a transcript is not expected to be made public after the group's work is finished. Asked if people would be named in the report, she said this was not the intention. 'We are not here to point fingers or to apportion individually blame. What we are here to do is assess the effectiveness and impact of the kind of decisions that were made.' Dr Tony Holohan and Leo Varadkar who were in office during the Covid-19 pandemic. Photograph: Dave Meehan Prof Scott said there would be public-facing events, including 'round table live stream' events hosted on the evaluation panel's website, which the review team expects to be held with groups representing different stakeholders affected by the pandemic, as well as debates. An initial 'voluminous' tranche of documents about the management of the pandemic has been handed over by Government departments and key agencies involved in managing the pandemic. [ The Irish Times view on the Government's Covid evaluation: a minimalist response Opens in new window ] Prof Scott said this approach would allow a 'more open, more flexible dynamic'. She said she hoped there would not be a need for legal representation and that she hoped to produce a report with 'clear, practical, implementable recommendations'. She expects 'significant co-operation' when seeking further information from departments and Cabinet, noting that the review team does not have statutory powers to compel the production of records. Safeguards around Cabinet confidentiality are also a consideration. The evaluation team today announced the start of a public consultation, which is open to all adults and is available online. Three additional panel members were also confirmed on Thursday, alongside Prof Scott and Dr David Heymann. Prof Bert Gordijn, Dr Nat O'Connor and Dr Nora Strecker have joined.
BreakingNews.ie
22-05-2025
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Leo Varadkar: Marriage equality result was best day of my political life
Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the marriage equality referendum results day was the best day in his political life. On May 22nd, 2015, the Irish electorate voted by 62 per cent in favour of same-sex marriage, on a high turnout of 61 per cent. All constituencies voted Yes except Roscommon-South Leitrim, which rejected the proposed amendment by a narrow margin. Advertisement "It was just one of those days where everything came together," Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio on the 10th anniversary of the event. "I started that day performing the official opening of St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown, which I'd been able to get funding for as health minister, so I just kind of saw two projects on the one day that were totally different and totally unconnected coming to fruition so it's those kind of days that make it all worthwhile." Mr Varadkar said it had been overwhelming at the referendum count centre. He had anticipated the results would be similar to the divorce referendum in 1994 – that the Yes vote would be stronger in urban areas with a big No vote in rural areas – but that did not happen. Leo Varadkar warned there were going to be setbacks in Ireland and around the world. Photo: Paul Faith/AFP via Getty As the results came in from around the country he said it became obvious that "it was a country that was embracing the idea of equality before the law for everyone, equal rights, freedom, equality of opportunity, and was doing it without a huge rural-urban divide or a class divide." Advertisement Mr Varakdar said the day was part "a wave of progress and liberty and freedom" that Ireland was part of. World Thai same-sex couples to tie knot in 2025 as marri... Read More The former Fine Gael leader, who resigned as taoiseach last year, acknowledged that when he started in politics he had not anticipated how much things would change in Ireland in the space of 10 years. He also admitted that his decision to "come out" had not caused him great angst, but it did cross his mind that it might have an impact on his future career. However, Mr Varadkar warned there were going to be setbacks in Ireland and around the world. "I always say that the arc of history bends towards progress, but it's not a straight line. There are always going to be backlashes. And they're going to be setbacks and sometimes they're gonna be severe. "It's one step forward, two steps back. That's kind of where we are at the moment."
Irish Times
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
Varadkar: marriage-equality vote result and hospice opening made my best day in politics
Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said May 23rd, 2015, was the best day in his political life due to the result of the marriage equality referendum and because he performed the official opening of St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown. 'It was just one of those days where everything came together. I started that day performing the official opening of St Francis Hospice in Blanchardstown which I'd been able to get funding for as health minister so I just kind of saw two projects on the one day that were totally different and totally unconnected coming to fruition so it's those kind of days that make it all worthwhile,' he told Newstalk Breakfast. Mr Varadkar added it had been overwhelming at the referendum count centre. He had anticipated the results would be similar to the divorce referendum in 1994 in that the Yes vote would be stronger in urban areas with a big No vote in rural areas, but that did not happen. As the results came in from around the country it became obvious that 'it was a country that was embracing the idea of equality before the law for everyone, equal rights, freedom, equality of opportunity, and was doing it without a huge rural-urban divide or a class divide – you know all those things that we see so much of now in politics, that day we didn't and that was great.' READ MORE Mr Varadkar said the result 'spurred us on to do other things like for example the Gender Recognition Act later and things like repealing the 8th [amendment on abortion] in 2018 so you know it wasn't just a one-day event, it was actually part, I think, of a wave of progress and liberty and freedom that Ireland was part of'. Mr Varadkar acknowledged that when he started in politics he had not anticipated how much things would change in Ireland in the space of 10 years. He also admitted his decision to 'come out' had not caused him great angst but added it did cross his mind that it might have an impact on his future career. However, Mr Varadkar warned there were going to be setbacks in Ireland and around the world. 'I always say that the arc of history bends towards progress, but it's not a straight line. There are always going to be backlashes. And they're going to be setbacks and sometimes they're gonna be severe. 'It's one step forward, two steps back. That's kind of where we are at the moment.'
