Howlin 'scandalised' that Varadkar sent confidential document to union

Brendan Howlin. The Labour TD did not say that he would be calling for Mr Varadkar's resignation but said he 'needed to hear the full story'.
Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Former public expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin says that he was "scandalised" that Leo Varadkar sent a confidential document to a union headed by a friend, while Green Party leader Eamon Ryan called the matter "a distraction".

Mr Varadkar will this evening address the Dáil on the matter, which occurred while he was Taoiseach, but the Labour TD said that if similar had happened to him under Enda Kenny, he would have felt "undermined".

Mr Ryan said that he has confidence in his coalition partners but said that he would agree with calls for the Standards in Public Office Commission to investigate "if necessary".

Wexford TD Mr Howlin said that he did not accept Mr Varadkar's assertion that he was sending the document, agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO, to the rival NAGP in order to ensure GP buy-in for the deal.

"If he felt this was the final agreement, simply publish it, and every GP could have had sight of it could have debated it, but he didn't do that. 

"He sent it to his friend who happens to be the president of the NAGP, who didn't actually circulate it - because two weeks after that, the NAGP, the organisation that he was president of, said they had no signs of the document.

"Obviously you have to want to have a deal cut with a trade union negotiating group, they have to set about selling it to membership, discussing it with their own membership and explaining it.

"But this deal, self evidently wasn't finalised because the Taoiseach at the time, but now Tánaiste wrote in his own hand, 'subject to amendment and changes'. And he sent it on that basis. It wasn't to every GP, it was to his friend."

Mr Howlin did not say that he would be calling for Mr Varadkar's resignation but said he "needed to hear the full story".