With the US Presidential Race engulfing the news in recent times, it felt like it took the spotlight off the controversy that had been surrounding Leo Varadkar. Two days after facing a 120-minute grilling from opposition parties in the Dáil regarding the sharing of a confidential document to his ‘friend’ Maitiu O’Tuathail, Varadkar once again entered the Dáil to answer Leaders Questions from the opposition.
Pearse Doherty, still unsatisfied with the answers the Tánaiste gave on Tuesday, began probing the sharing of the document to the former NAGP President once more. In what seemed like a relatively harmless comment at the time, Doherty said “I’ve looked through both documents and I’ve found that there is at least 35 changes from the one you provided to your friend, President of the NAGP and the one that was subsequently published by the Department of Health.” It was not until the Tánaiste responded that a hole was appearing in Doherty’s suggestion that he had compared both documents.
“I don’t have a copy {of the document} that was sent to Dr. O’Tuathail, so I don’t know how it is possible for you to make those comparisons.”
“I don’t know how you can make comparisons to a document we no longer have.”
So, what exact document had Doherty compared to the official document published by the Department of Health and where did he obtain the document? These are obviously questions Doherty must answer himself.
Some could argue it would be quite difficult to obtain versions of the draft document, not least because the documents are not released to the public alongside the official document but as to whether the document Doherty is claiming to have is a confidential document. It is hard to fathom someone went out of their way to make a version of the draft document nonconfidential and easily accessible to members of the public. The questions mentioned above need to be answered, it is all well and good accusing Varadkar of leaking a document as a favour to a friend (thus making Varadkar’s defence that he shared the document in good faith obsolete) but it would be a similar offence to be a beneficiary of accepting and reading a confidential document sent to you by someone else.
It is an important detail as Sinn Fein’s strongest argument is that the document Varadkar shared had ‘confidential’ written all over it and it was wrong to share it, whether the contents of the document were public or not. This is an argument supported by members of the public service who regularly handle confidential documents. Do not be fooled if Doherty provides where he got the draft document from because the whole argument he has been providing is ‘if it has confidential written on it, it is confidential’. By his own very logic, he should not be looking at that document. That draft document Varadkar shared will always have confidential written on it.
When Varadkar poured cold water over Doherty’s suggestion he had compared the documents, Doherty never mentioned the 35 changes again. This is not a one-off event, a similar event occurred on the Tuesday when Pearse Doherty alluded to further screenshots of messages between Leo and O’Tuathail and Simon Harris, where did Doherty source these screenshots from? Twitter.
His questions up until that point had been very strong, yet all of sudden all his hard work melted away. Using Twitter as a source of evidence in the home of Irish democracy is hardly good practice, in fact it is nothing short of embarrassing. It showed the naked political agenda they were having against the Tánaiste. Unfortunately, it runs far deeper than a political agenda against Leo Varadkar though. Using unverified evidence, found on a random account on Twitter with more numbers at the end of their Twitter name than international phone numbers is a spit in the face of democracy. Truth is the fulcrum of a working democracy, yet it was completely undermined when Pearse Doherty stood up in the Dáil and presented those screenshots like they were the gospel. Baseless accusations from those screenshots followed. How can our democracy have any dignity if public representatives cannot even tell the truth in the Dáil? Varadkar is being held to account for his actions but what about the people questioning him, do they not be held to account too?
Varadkar made a poor error of judgement in sharing the document to Maitiu O’Tuathail, that there is no question. Had he gone through the proper channels of communication, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation today. While Varadkar acknowledged his friendship with Maitiu O’Tuathail, the fact remains on the 13th of April, in the middle of the timeline of the shared document, O’Tuathail publicly attacked the government for providing more GP visiting cards calling it “a shameful vote-getting exercise” and the “biggest con job in the history of the health service.” Would Varadkar really share a confidential document as a favour to a friend who just attacked his government in the media? Very unlikely. Hence why it far more plausible Varadkar did indeed share the document with the aim of getting the NAGP on board with the agreement and not as a favour to his friend.
Yet even for his error, the nauseating attacks from politicians who use completely unverified evidence (some call it lying) to try and plot the downfall of a political opponent, they are the real antagonists. In a week where Donald Trump hit headlines for making unverified claims that there was voter fraud in the U.S elections, a similar situation is occurring on our own soil. If they cannot even tell the truth in the Dáil, what makes you think they are going to tell you the truth come election time.
“EPP Summit, Brussels, December 2018” by More pictures and videos: [email protected] is licensed under CC BY
Peter is a digital marketer with a BA degree in history and politics. He is a member of Fine Gael. Twitter: Farrelly_peter
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