Leo Varadkar previously warned against 'creating an artificial divide' between rural and urban Ireland

The former Fine Gael leader has hit headlines by suggesting that rural workers are being 'subsidised' by urban workers. File picture: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, who has come under fire for comments about rural dwellers, had previously warned against “creating an artificial divide” between rural and urban Ireland and “playing one off against the other”.

During a 2021 speech, made when he was Tánaiste, Mr Varadkar said he had always “rejected attempts” to create such a divide.

The former Fine Gael leader has hit headlines by suggesting that rural workers are being “subsidised” by urban workers.

On an episode of Matt Cooper’s podcast Path to Power at the weekend, he said: “People in rural Ireland are very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that, ‘we are the real workers, we’re the ones paying the bills, we’re the ones feeding the country’.

“We need to be a little more blunt in urban Ireland and say, ‘actually, that’s not the case. We are the ones paying all the bills, and you are the ones who are in receipt of a lot of subsidies and tax benefits that other people don’t get'.”

However, in a speech by Mr Varadkar in March 2021 at the launch of Our Rural Future in Croke Park, he warned against creating a divide.

“I’ve always rejected attempts to create an artificial divide between rural Ireland and urban Ireland — to play one off against the other —
East v West, Dublin v the rest,” he said.

“We are One Nation, and few Dubs are more than a generation or two away from rural Ireland."

Fine Gael has attempted to distance itself from Mr Varadkar’s weekend comments, with Tánaiste Simon Harris saying: “That it was really important as a country that we pull together”.

“We need to stop defining people based on their geography, based on their profession.”