5 Issues where Varadkar showed himself as Ireland’s Greatest Enemy of the Oppressed

The Irish media has been falling over itself in praise of Leo Varadkar, presenting him as some sort of trailblazing progressive who managed to be ‘above politics’. The truth is very different. Here Conall McCallig and Corbin Browne outline 5 issues which showed Varadkar for who he really was: an enemy of the oppressed.

1. Abortion rights

Varadkar has routinely trivialised and belittled the fight for abortion rights throughout his career. He originally opposed abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and defended forcing women who wanted abortions to travel to the UK comparing it to travelling to Las Vegas to gamble. Even when he was pushed to support repeal, he insisted on statements like referring to abortion as “not a good thing” or only “sometimes necessary”. This is in stark contrast to his more recent views (not 5 years ago), when he said that the “8th Amendment hurts women”. This is as clear an example as one could ask for to highlight his pathological need to only support social progress when he deems it beneficial to his stranglehold on power.

2. Gay rights

Ever the political chameleon, Leo Varadkar’s views on queer people have often shifted, be it on a whim or some vague notion of populism. Examples range from his deeply hurtful remarks towards gay parents (“Every child has the right to a mother and father and, as much as is possible, the State should vindicate that right. That is a much more important right than that of two men or women having a family”), to his inflammatory remarks regarding trans prisoners, to his deportation of LGBT+ asylum seekers back to the countries from which they have fled. According to former USI Deputy President Michelle Byrne, he has even rallied against LGBT-inclusive sex education, going as far as to say that “there was little point in inclusive sex Ed in schools when it was the Africans and Brazilians bringing HIV in”. Leo Varadkar has been nothing but harmful for Ireland’s LGBT+ community.

3. Water Charges

In perhaps his greatest display of a deeply ingrained disdain for the working class, Varadkar struck out hard at the water charges protests in 2014 - calling them a “sinister fringe”. The water charges were one of the loudest united outcries the working class in Ireland have ever let out, and the former Taoiseach’s comments do nothing but further cement his legacy as a neo-liberal anti-working class enemy of the people.

4. “Welfare Cheats Cheat us All” Campaign

A resounding war cry against the working class of Ireland - “Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All”. This was Leo Varadkar on an otherwise bright afternoon in April 2017. The scheme, which claimed would result in savings of €500 million annually (it did not), encouraged ordinary people “to report suspected or known cases of welfare fraud”, in a blatant attempt to pit segments of the working class against each other.

5. Hospital Beds

"What can happen in some hospitals is sometimes, when they have more beds and more resources, that's what kind of slows it down." Prior to becoming Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar operated as the Minister for Health during the austerity-inflicting Fine Gael /Labour coalition government. Leo’s Thatcherite ideology was already well-developed at this stage, and this was a sign of things to come – Leo has left office as Taoiseach with hospital overcrowding at a record high.