Varadkar’s Dáil attack on Pearse Doherty was important and justified

Leo Varadkar’s combative response to Sinn Féin in the Dáil last week was a welcome sign that the Fine Gael leader is prepared to defend the Government’s record and has not succumbed to the defeatist attitude that appears to have infected some of his party colleagues.

There was a predictable outbreak of tut-tutting in the media at the Tánaiste’s robust response to Pearse Doherty – but it was long overdue. Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have been far too timid for the past two years in the face of an unrelenting onslaught from Sinn Féin in the Dáil, social media and every public forum.

Micheál Martin and Varadkar have been prepared to take on Sinn Féin but too few of their Cabinet colleagues and TDs have shown similar resolve. If the parties in Government are not prepared to defend their record, the public will rightly conclude that they are not fit to run the country for another term.

[ Doherty accuses Varadkar of ‘scripted’ and ‘rehearsed’ comments ]

The future direction of Irish democracy will be on the line in the next election, with the centre parties that have charted the country’s course for the past century facing a determined challenge from the populist Sinn Féin juggernaut. The outcome of that election will define the country’s future direction for decades to come.

Jacques Nienaber says Leinster got it wrong in three areas against Toulouse

---

Your top stories on Wednesday: TikTok video prompts inquiry into HSE data breaches; roadside drug tests for drivers in serious crashes

---

John O’Shea’s Ireland squad announcement overshadowed by Damien Duff’s remarks

---

Several farmers had a notion to grow ‘something different’ in west Cork in the 1980s. The idea took off

---

Sinn Féin’s impressive poll ratings have induced a mood of defeatism among too many Government TDs. They ignore the fact that the polls also show that the three Coalition parties combined still command the support of around half of the electorate despite the succession of crises they have had to deal with. Given that Sinn Féin will have to find a Coalition partner to win power, the outcome of the next election is not a foregone conclusion.

Varadkar certainly got down and dirty in the Dáil exchanges with Doherty but only in response to the Donegal TD throwing the first stone. As well getting personal, the Tánaiste made a number of salient political points, including the fact that Sinn Féin is one of the biggest property owners in the state and appears to have a bottomless pit of financial resources compared to the other political parties.

Varadkar is not the only one who has pointed this out. Peadar Tóibín, the Aontú TD for Meath, who was a Sinn Féin member for 21 years before quitting in protest at the party’s stance on abortion in 2018, told the Dáil last month that Sinn Féin had over 100 properties in the State at the moment.

Responding to Sinn Féin’s demand that the State should requisition the land for the National Maternity Hospital from the nuns who operate St Vincent’s, he said: “I would suggest that maybe Sinn Féin gift some of their properties to the State. It is easy to be generous with other people’s money. People shouldn’t ask others to do what they wouldn’t do themselves.”

A big stick

Demanding higher standards from others than it does of itself is all part and parcel of Sinn Féin’s approach to politics. Denouncing the government’s failures on housing has been the centrepiece of its assault on the Coalition yet Sinn Féin has led objections to new housing developments in many parts of the country. It seems the party’s tactic is to ensure that housing remains in crisis to provide it with a big stick to beat the Government parties.

Varadkar addressed an even more important instance of Sinn Féin double standards in the Dáil exchanges with Doherty. “There are a huge number of convicted criminals in his party and in the wider republican family, whether they be tax dodgers like Slab Murphy, a ‘good republican’, according to Deputy McDonald – a good republican, a tax dodger – or people who have been convicted for murder. We know what his party’s attitude is to rape and paedophiles and what it has done in that regard.”

These are issues which rarely feature in political debate but which go to the heart of Sinn Féin’s fitness for government. One of the reasons there is such little discussion about them is that in recent years Sinn Féin has embarked on a legal strategy, copied from Russian oligarchs and the super wealthy closer to home, who issue libel writs to intimidate the media into silence.

Mary Lou McDonald recently launched an action for defamation against RTÉ and it was just the latest in a series of libel suits taken or threatened by Sinn Féin politicians. Some of these actions have resulted in substantial payouts but, more crucially, they have had a chilling impact on the media’s ability to scrutinise the party.

Back in 1981 Danny Morrison famously proclaimed that the republican movement would ultimately take power in Ireland with “with a ballot paper in this hand and an Armalite in the other”. It now appears that the tactic has been modified to “a ballot paper in one hand and a libel writ in the other”.

That is why Dáil privilege is so important. It provides a forum where serious concerns about Sinn Féin can be raised without fear of legal retaliation. That will only happen if more TDs show Varadkar’s resolve to call a spade a spade.