Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As we all know, that did not end up too well last time. I hope Deputy Varadkar will respond to the rumour that he sent Deputy Rock out of the country for the duration of the leadership election and only allowed him back in for the vote.

Deputy Varadkar's decade as a party spokesman and Minister has shown us a lot about how he approaches politics but he will reach the office of Taoiseach with almost nothing known about his views on many major policy issues. Even his most ardent supporters have had to strain themselves to claim that he has more than a modest policy record as a Minister. They ultimately had to resort to claiming for him policies which had clearly been initiated by others. In fact, there was something almost indecent about the attempt to snatch credit from Senator James Reilly for the few bright spots in his time as Minister for Health.

Deputy Varadkar's views on the challenge of building a lasting peace, prosperity and unity on this island are largely unknown beyond the few general statements about being in favour of all three. The same is true about the development and reform of the European Union, industrial policy, education policy and even the future of our health service. It is certainly true that Deputy Varadkar's views would be significantly more right wing on most economic topics than the centre-ground consensus. In last year's negotiations, his approach was very distinct from that of his colleagues. During his leadership contest, he again gave an emphasis which showed him to be by instinct more inclined to prioritising deregulation and tax cuts ahead of a more social emphasis. This morning's headlines suggest that he will temper his ideology. Let us hope this has some substance to it.

The core reason Deputy Varadkar secured such a crushing victory in his parliamentary party is that his colleagues hope he will restore their political fortunes and not because he was offering the type of genuinely transformative and modernising leadership offered by a Taoiseach such as Seán Lemass.

Deputy Varadkar won their hearts conclusively by using his opportunities as a stand-in at Leaders' Questions to be more aggressively partisan in attacking opponents. This followed on from a series of electoral campaigns where his preferred role was as a designated attacker of the Opposition. His colleagues were also impressed by his open approach to the media. For many years he has been renowned as the most accessible source in Government. His skill at avoiding hard news and distancing himself from the controversies of a Government he sat in was remarkable. Added to this has been his ability to spin every minor development in one of his Departments as a step change. It is striking that the strong support which this record won him in his parliamentary party was not reflected in the much broader membership of Fine Gael.

The role of Taoiseach is profoundly different from that of Minister and party spokesman. It is only by him holding the office that we will see if Deputy Varadkar is willing to make the changes necessary to be successful. There will come a point when the soft coverage ends and the accountability begins. The tactical obsession with managing headlines can only work for a while. It has already been indicated that a raft of initiatives such as the new infrastructure plan had been held up in order that they can be branded as showing new energy in the Government. This is the same approach that for six years has seen every passing policy put in new covers and stamped with the words "action plan". In taking over a Government defined by its ability to over-spin and under-deliver on nearly all major issues, success will not be achieved by the implementation of a new media management grid for sharing out policy morsels. The true mark of success for Deputy Varadkar will be if he understands just how wrong he is when he says that if one tries to represent everyone, one will represent no one. The very definition of the job of Taoiseach and the Government is to represent all the people. It is not about picking winners and losers or finding new labels to divide people. It is about representing every citizen. It is about fighting against the growing polarisation we have seen in recent years where a deep sense of unfairness has developed, especially among those who feel their struggles are ignored. Our country faces many deep challenges. Some of these are the result of a refusal to acknowledge problems until they become crises. Others are the result of external threats.

The confidence and supply agreement which we agreed last year is unusual in international terms in only one respect, namely, it is solely focused on policy. We have sought and received none of the access to patronage or resources found in nearly all such agreements. We did this because we wanted to ensure an absolute focus on the substance of new and targeted policies. The most important thing that has been achieved is that Fine Gael's divisive approach to budgets has been curtailed. The regressive tax cuts and assault on key services have been halted. Deputy Varadkar said last year that the latest budget is the first fair one of his party's time in office. However, the broader implementation of the policy agreement has been unacceptable. In housing, commitments for delivery on social housing have been missed, while misleading figures have been used to cover this up. In mental health, the Government has simply refused to allocate or spend the agreed and desperately needed extra funding. In hospital services, the manipulation of rising waiting lists continues, and the full funding of an agreed and proven way of tackling the lists has been unacceptably delayed. With regard to the budget, the lack of transparency and bad faith in outlining available resources was an unequivocal breach of the agreement, as was the use of financial powers to block a non-financial Bill introduced by Fianna Fáil. Even on a small but deeply important commitment such as the restoration of dedicated career and guidance counselling in schools, there have been unjustified delays and splitting of hairs.

In broader terms, the past year has been one of ongoing drift and excuses from the Government. The two principal excuses have been that Deputy Kenny was on his way out which left a leadership vacuum and that Ministers are scared to propose anything because they do not know how the Dáil will vote. With the change of Fine Gael's leader, the first excuse is gone. The second was always nonsense. The bulk of legislation that has not been published is uncontroversial. For other initiatives there is no credibility whatsoever because Ministers have failed even to set out what they would like to do let alone produce proposals we could vote on. Today the time for excuses ends.

The Fine Gael Party has the dominant control of Government. It has major staffing and financial resources at its disposal to develop and, more important, implement badly needed improvements for our people. The full, complete and fast implementation of the agreement which allows it to be in government is not open for debate. If it operates in good faith and with transparency, the agreement will run its full course but if it sees every issue as a partisan opportunity and seeks to manipulate the budget process to suit immediate electoral strategies, it knows the consequences.

I have been assured by Deputy Varadkar that he will fully implement the agreement and instruct Ministers to end delays on agreed funding. In addition, he has accepted the need to move immediately on other agreed proposals such as a new initiative on mental health. I have also raised our concerns about Northern Ireland and Brexit. We need a much more active and ambitious engagement if we are to overcome threats of historic significance. This is not about having more photo calls but a return to the days of Dublin seeking to take an active leadership and ending the stranglehold of narrow party interests.

If Deputy Varadkar wishes to do more than talk about changing politics, he has an opportunity to do this today before the vote on the new Government. Yesterday's appointment to the Court of Appeal was the first time in nearly a quarter of a century that an appointment such as this was made in this manner. It directly bypassed established procedures and the excuse that there were no qualified applicants is clearly false given that the last application process closed nearly six months ago and there was no public advertisement of this vacancy. Given the controversies which the outgoing Attorney General has been involved in and the findings of the Fennelly report, the rushed and unusual manner of the appointment to which Deputy Varadkar and all of his colleagues agreed is, at best, squalid.

Added to this is the behaviour of the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross. Where once he insisted on removing politics completely from such appointments, he has now agreed to the most directly political appointment in nearly a quarter of a century. It is essential that Deputy Varadkar addresses this controversy. We expect him to explain what he knew and outline his discussions with the Minister, Deputy Ross, on this matter and the highly unusual decision to take one partial recommendation of an incomplete report from the Garda Commissioner and announce it with a banner on a south Dublin road.

The challenges faced by our country are as they were last year. The obligation on the Government and Dáil to act constructively to tackle this challenge remains. After a wasted year of drift and delay, the time for excuses is over. We will have a new Taoiseach who has been chosen by his party to turn around electoral performance. What we need is a new focus on the much harder work of delivering for the Irish people.

See this speech in context