When former taoiseach Leo Varadkar used to put his foot in it as a politician, there was an entire infrastructure around him to mitigate the damage. When he generated controversy, staff poured water on fires he had a tendency to start out of nowhere; cabinet and parliamentary colleagues went out to bat for him.
There was his leaking of a proposed GP contract agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation to his then friend who was president of a rival organisation as well as his attendance at a UK music festival, while there on business, during Covid-19 on the same weekend Electric Picnic should have taken place at home but didn’t due to the pandemic.
That supporting damage control infrastructure is gone now. When Varadkar recently spoke far too loosely on a podcast in a divisive manner unnecessarily pitting people against each other by geography while diminishing the importance of farming to Ireland, politicians did not jump to his defence. In fact, the opposite happened.
At a chaotic moment for the Coalition in the aftermath of the fuel blockades, the last thing Fine Gael needed was Varadkar in his podcast era becoming a thorn in its side, just as prince Harry and Meghan Markle have to the royal family. They must have thought: please say less.
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There were two aspects to what Varadkar said that were not smart inputs. The first was his view on why farmers are no longer important: “what’s in the interests of farmers and the agriculture industry is by and large not in the interests of Ireland as a nation.” Among some farmers, fear of their obsolescence is an existential worry that underpins so much that is contested within agriculture today. There is an empathy issue with Varadkar’s remarks. People do not like being told their value is decreasing and will react accordingly.
The second was that he thinks “people in urban Ireland” should tell “people in rural Ireland” that the former are the ones “paying all the bills”, and the latter are “in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get”. Framing fantasy versions of “rural” and “urban” Ireland as a polarised divide helps no one. This is, however, what Varadkar thinks. He stood over his remarks, apologising for how he said them.
One question is, why did he feel the need to say this? Another is, why is the guy who was taoiseach five minutes ago now a pundit riffing on podcasts?
Varadkar had barely left political life when he popped up on a reality TV show on RTÉ. It was followed by a busy stint promoting his memoir, Speaking My Mind (he got that bit right) last autumn. He appeared on Ryan Tubridy’s podcast, The Irish Times Inside Politics podcast, an Irish Independent podcast, The News Agents podcast and the Full Disclosure podcast, as well as giving several newspaper interviews. More recently, he was introduced as a regular contributor to Matt Cooper’s Path to Power podcast, where he made his controversial comments.
[ Varadkar says he ‘over-stated’ comments on rural Ireland and issues apologyOpens in new window ]
I’ve no doubt leaving a huge role where you are so well known is a challenging transition. Many of us blend our identities with our work. A job can become not just something you do but who you are. The attention high office offered may have been stressful but also familiar. I can imagine too leaving such a pressurised role was something of a relief. “You can speak more freely, write more freely and think more freely,” Varadkar told the Guardian last year, assessing his liberation from the confines of public office. And you can, kind of. But realistically, this freedom probably shouldn’t include picking fights on social media as he has done recently, or busking it on podcasts in times of government strife.
Then, there is another reality, one of self-perception versus public perception. While Varadkar may have made the transition from public figure to private citizen himself, the public hasn’t. Whether he likes it or not, cares about it or not, or understands it or not, he remains inextricably linked to contemporary Fine Gael, and Fine Gael in power. When he passes comment, the public still hears the upper echelons of Fine Gael speaking, and the mindset of Government echoing.
Varadkar’s new career choices may be diverse but at least some of them are not beyond politics. In fact, he is inserting himself in politics, commentating on live political events and positioning himself as a pundit, podcast guest and newspaper columnist.
Regardless of what else he’s doing, it is this the public sees and hears. In this way, he is rewriting a rule book on how former taoisigh act that many didn’t think existed because we’ve never seen this behaviour before, in terms of passing comment in the moment as issues unfold.
Having been in the spotlight for so long, most former taoisigh clearly think it wise to step away for a while, and ultimately emerge taciturn. This is not Varadkar’s mode. He is seeking and gaining attention. Why is probably a question he needs to ask himself.
The reason he is gaining it is obvious. He is still an important political figure. The words of a former taoiseach carry weight.
Varadkar has never been good at reading a room or catching the mood. It appears this latest controversy comes down to that lack of capacity to appreciate how his remarks will be received. If he continues to offer them, he might think about choosing them and the arenas where they’re expressed, a little more wisely.
