Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issues at stake are very clear. Deputy Varadkar, as Taoiseach in 2019, gave a confidential draft document, a contract worth €210 million that was still under discussion with the IMO, to his friend, the president of a rival organisation, on his request. It was done not through official channels but through private text messages before deleting all traces of the correspondence. A friend of the Taoiseach requested a confidential Government document by text message and Leo delivered. End of. If a civil servant did the same, it would constitute gross misconduct, trigger disciplinary action and be grounds for dismissal. What are the consequences for the Tánaiste? Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael believe there should be no consequences, or no sanction. We disagree. The Tánaiste has crossed the line and we are expected to just look away. This is not good enough.

Truth be told, this is how Fine Gael does its business. It involves the politics of the insider, the favour for friends, and access to power for those in high places, but the politics of the insider comes at a price for those on the outside. In this regard, just consider insurance. People are still being ripped off owing to extortionate premium costs. Why? It is because the insurance industry sat down with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and asked him to ensure key sections of my legislation, passed by these Houses, would be blocked. The Minister did as he was asked. Tens of thousands of mortgage holders have seen their mortgages on their homes sold to vulture funds. The vultures asked Fine Gael to block legislation that I introduced that would not allow for the sale of those mortgages without consent. Fine Gael did as it was asked because that is how power works for it. One day it is tasked with holding vested interests to account and the next it becomes the chief lobbyist on the other side. In this regard, just look at the record. A former Fine Gael Minister of State, Mr. Michael D'Arcy, spent three years in the Department of Finance, or three years being lobbied by the fund industry, yet, three months after leaving office, he became the chief lobbyist. The banks are another example. Another former Fine Gael Minister of State, Mr. Brian Hayes, spent three years in the Department of Finance and he is now the chief lobbyist for the banking and vulture fund industry. The revolving door keeps spinning. It is a consistent pattern; it is the politics of Leo Varadkar. Those on the inside will always have his ear.

The Tánaiste's excuse for leaking the confidential documents simply does not hold up. He claims it was some part of a mastermind strategy to get the contract over the line, but strategy requires initiative. This was at his initiative. It was his friend who requested the document from the Minister for Health. That Minister refused to give it to him because it was confidential but Leo delivered for his friend. When he was asked to get it, he obliged. He did so in secret and without telling anyone, covering his tracks and deleting the correspondence. He claims leaking the document was part of a strategy to engage with the NAGP but we know there was no engagement with the NAGP on the part of the Government or the Department of Health. Indeed, the only engagement was when Deputy Varadkar stuck a confidential document in the post to give to his friend, the head of the organisation that was rival to the IMO. The Tánaiste says the agreement was in the public domain but it was not. Every single one of the 130 pages had stamped across it, “Confidential. Not for circulation.” We are aware there were at least 35 further changes.

The Tánaiste has been caught red-handed. He leaked confidential, commercially sensitive Government information to a friend. He and his Government colleagues believe he is above accountability but he is not, nor should he be. The question in this House is whether we are going to stand for this. Are we going to allow for this kind of cosy insiders' club to continue, or are we going to vote for accountability? We in Sinn Féin have no confidence in this Tánaiste.

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