GEORGE LEE’s resignation “was like a bomb had hit Fine Gael” and the party would “vet” its candidates more stringently in the future, frontbencher Dr Leo Varadkar has said.
"Some of us knew he was unhappy but we certainly didn't think it was going to cause him to leave the party or to leave politics altogether and that was a very difficult day," he told RTÉ Radio's This Weekprogramme yesterday.
Denying that Fine Gael was solely to blame for Mr Lee’s resignation as a TD, Mr Varadkar said: “Politics didn’t work out for him and it didn’t suit him. It doesn’t suit everyone and that’s the truth of it, and we’re sorry he’s left.”
Asked about his party leader, Enda Kenny’s handling of the resignation, Mr Varadkar said: “I think, actually, he handled it extremely well.”
Mr Kenny had come to the front bench the day after the Lee announcement: “At that point it was clear to all of us that, whoever was responsible for this, it certainly wasn’t Enda Kenny, that he’d done everything he could to keep George on board.”
The leader’s recent performances “showed a man that actually is very good in a crisis”.
It was Mr Varadkar’s understanding that, prior to agreeing to run in the Dublin South byelection, Mr Lee “wasn’t given any promise in relation to particular positions or officerships within the party”.
It was also his view that, on entering into politics, Mr Lee was “a little bit naive and I think everybody understands that now”.
He added: “There are definitely lessons for us, for Fine Gael, to be learned from this. We still want to bring new people into politics, we’re very keen to bring new people with different skills into politics.” These would include, “celebrities . . . entrepreneurs, people with other expertise”.
He added that, in saying Mr Lee was not suited to politics, “I don’t mean that as an insult to him, he’s somebody I actually like a lot and I don’t bear him any ill-will, whatever has been said this week.”