Varadkar backs Humphreys attack on compo culture

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has swung into the Maria Bailey controversy by backing criticism of the TD by Business Minister Heather Humphreys about personal responsibility.

Ms Humphreys launched a stinging attack on compensation culture and called for the need for people to have common sense and take “responsibility for their own personal safety if they have an accident”.

Speaking in Brussels, Mr Varadkar said: “I heard what Minister Humphreys had to say today in the Dáil and I think a lot of people would identify with that and agree with what she had to say.”

On Ms Bailey, he said: “I’ll be meeting her before the end of the week and I would like to have that meeting and hear her story.

I am not going to ask her questions through the media. I’ll do that when I meet her during the week and that is the appropriate thing to do.

That face-to-face meeting is expected to take place today amid fresh calls for her to be stripped of the chairmanship of the Oireachtas housing committee, which comes with a €10,000 stipend. Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin joined the calls from within Fine Gael for her to be removed.

He said: “In terms of sanctions, parties don’t own Dáil committees and I have always had a reluctance about people dictating the course of committees, but there is a case, therefore, the Taoiseach should ask her, in the context of what has happened, to stand down from the chair.”

In Leaders’ Questions, opposition leaders raised compensation culture and the impact it is having on businesses. Social Democrats leader Catherine Murphy referred to the Bailey case directly.

“The Maria Bailey fiasco has once again put it back into the spotlight and I’m sure it’s hugely embarrassing for yourself and your party colleagues there’s a much bigger picture here at play that you have to deal with,” she said.

While Ms Humphreys did not refer to her party colleague by name, she said she knew “how frustrating it is for business when fraudulent or exaggerated claims are made as many of them do feel they are being punished for this compensation culture and I have to say my view on this is very simple”.

“People need to have some common sense and they need to be responsible for their own personal safety,” she said.

“So if you trip or you fall you have to ask yourself why it happened and more often than not the answer is because of their own carelessness and we need to change this culture because there is a culture in this country that if you have an accident, it’s everyone’s fault except your own and that applies to the play yard as well.”

In the past, she said, if a child fell “you were dusted down and sent back to school”. However, “now people look to see is there the opportunity here and I think that’s a culture we have to change and we need people when they have an accident they have to look at their own responsibility for their own welfare”.

It has been confirmed Ms Bailey will not chair a session of the Oireachtas housing committee this morning. Deputy chair Pat Casey is to take over instead.