Varadkar passes Coolmine school exam
by Martin Ryan

Local TD Leo Varadkar might be used to awkward questions in the Dáil and the media but he faced a different style of grilling recently when he called into Coolmine Community School to face a group of first years for a question and answer session with the Fine Gael spokesman for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

The group of pupils in question were a number of very bright and inquisitive youngsters who are part of the school’s SOLAS programme for young pupils displaying exceptional ability.

While the general nature of the role of a TD was of some interest to the young questioners, it was on the specifics of Leo Varadkar’s career that they showed a grasp of detail and tenacity of which RTE presenter Seán O’Rourke himself would have been proud.

Deputy Varadkar explained the differences between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil as a two-pronged matter comprising variances of both policy and values. The difference in values was, he explained, that Fine Gael “tell people the truth whether they want to hear it or not” – as distinct from Fianna Fáil’s “white lies”. Secondly he suggested that Fine Gael would never lose the run of themselves on matters of public spending by signing cheques prolifically.

That the latter claim did not exactly square with the TD’s own recent comments about Garret Fitzgerald’s trebling of the national debt while Taoiseach was not lost on the young Coolmine group.

Deputy Varadkar fielded the question admirably while acknowledging that he had not been expecting it.

He stood by his comments citing Garret as having been good on the North and Europe but not strong enough on the economy when the hard decisions needed to be made.

He also remained consistent with his views on another Fine Gael economist when he defended the party’s handling of George Lee. Was the exceptionally quick waning of the Dublin South TD’s star a sign of a party out of touch with the populist message George brought to Dáil Éireann? asked the Coolmine pupils. In reply Deputy Varadkar drew a distinction between what he saw as the type of easy rhetoric which was in George’s gift as an RTÉ commentator and the grasp of the nitty gritty required to make the sort of detailed and properly costed arguments that would pass muster in the sceptical and hostile environs of the national parliament.

Among other topics raised were, inevitably, health and unemployment. Here the Fine Gael spokesman on employment matters provided a salutary warning on the question of economic recovery – most notably the distinction between a technical and real recovery.

He recalled that the last recession technically ended in 1983 but that jobs did not materialise to any great extent until around 1989/90, meaning that the real impact of imminent announcements that we are out of recession should not be exaggerated.

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