Fianna Fáil say Leo Varadkar is the hands-off ‘David Attenborough of health’

Health Minister Leo Varadkar has been accused of acting like he is “the David Attenborough of the health service, observing from a distance” instead of implementing workable reforms.

Fianna Fáil health spokesman Billy Kelleher compared his rival to the documentary maker, claiming “the only difference” between Mr Varadkar and Dr James Reilly is he is “a master at spin and PR”.

Speaking on the first night of a two-day Dáil health service debate, Mr Kelleher and his party colleagues repeatedly lashed out at Mr Varadkar’s performance.

However, despite calling for target times for no one to wait more than six hours on hospital trolleys, Fianna Fáil was unable to explain why it also failed to achieve these goals while in power.

Mr Kelleher said last week’s scandal surrounding an elderly patient left on a trolley at Tallaght Hospital for 29 hours shows Mr Varadkar is “singularly failing” in his highly paid job.

He said Mr Varadkar must “accept he is a minister, he’s not the David Attenborough of the health service, observing from a distance while it careens out of control”.

In the Dáil, his colleague Colm Keaveney said the consultant who raised last week’s Tallaght concerns he has not received support from a health minister who “supported garda whistleblowers”. After Sinn Féin TD Peadar Toibin said he is aware of 40 cases of ambulances arriving an hour late, resulting in seven deaths, Mr Keaveney claimed that when last week’s scandal emerged the minister seemed to believe “it was an act of God, some natural disaster, just shrug the shoulder, these things happen”.

Mr Varadkar accused the opposition of throwing numbers around “like confetti” before saying that there has been a 16.7% reduction in people on trolleys since 2011.