TDs divided over Leo Varadkar's attack on Nphet
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan in the early days of the pandemic. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar's comments represent "a large feeling" among Fine Gael TDs and voters, although Fianna Fáil TDs believe that he "took the spotlight" last night.
Sources say that while both parties believed that a move to level 5 of the restriction framework — as recommended by the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) — would have been too severe, Fine Gael members are most in support of Mr Varadkar's subsequent attack on it.
Speaking on RTÉ television, he hit out at Nphet for "landing this on us as a surprise".
"That shouldn't have happened. The CMO [Chief Medical Officer] Dr Tony Holohan accepted it and it will not happen again," Mr Varadkar said.
Fianna Fáil TDs said that they generally believed Mr Varadkar's overall point — that Nphet had acted without consulting the Government — was correct, it was "not appropriate to criticise the CMO at this point".
Others said that they felt that Mr Varadkar had attempted to take the plaudits. "You had Micheál on the TV at 9pm, but then Leo swoops in to take the spotlight," one pointed out.
The party was also of the belief that their TD Jim O'Callaghan was to be the lead guest on the show.
Sources in Leinster House have noted that internal polling conducted by Fine Gael may have bolstered Mr Varadkar's confidence in criticising the public health officials, as some of the results suggest that a large section of society believes that Nphet has been given too much power over politicians and business.
The polling suggests the public seems split on how much credence should be given to Nphet advice, and Mr Varadkar's comments "strike a chord" with one side of that argument.
One source said that the party's TDs were generally of the same belief as Mr Varadkar and said that the Tánaiste was "more dialled in to what's going on around Europe than Stephen Donnelly would be".
"The interview was very Leo, but I'm not sure he said anything that many people didn't believe," the source said.
Another Fine Gael source said that the party is not worried internally about the appearance: "No. I mean there is very justified anger and I think that came across when he was speaking.
"I think most people in the party could see he was frustrated. What will happen if we went to level 5 and we couldn't pay people's pensions come Christmas? The public is anxious enough and it looked like Leo reflected that.
"We know that the letter was not leaked by Nphet, but it was leaked by someone and that's not fair when the Government is trying to make decisions.
"What's more annoying is Stephen Donnelly avoiding the question when asked whose fault it will be if it was the wrong decision.
"Make a decision and stand over it, Jesus Christ, I shouldn't be slagging him but take some responsibility, for feck sake."
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