Leo’s brief is to resuscitate Fine Gael ahead of election

NEW Health Minister Leo Varadkar intends to focus most of his attention on one patient that has suffered a nasty fall recently — Fine Gael’s poll rating.

In an opening statement of intent that was big on retreat and light on forward-thinking, Mr Varadkar left little doubt that his priority is getting through the next election.

In a show of the bluffness that has been his stock-in-trade, Mr Varadkar said he was put in the post to “aid the Government’s re-election, if I can at least steady the ship, if not turn it around.”

So, it’s all about grabbing the wheel from Captain Disaster himself, Dr James Reilly, and avoiding hitting the looming electoral iceberg — and if the health service improves a long the way, well, that’s an added bonus.

But at least having a doctor in charge must be cause for hope? Erm, not if Dr Reilly’s chaotic tenure is anything to go by.

Not known for his bedside manner, Mr Varadkar’s kill-or-cure attitude was on display in his treatment of Dr Reilly, his predecessor, who was bundled out of the Health Department by Enda Kenny and suffered severe bruising of the ego as a result.

Dr Reilly bathed his wounds in the scant comfort that he would be allowed to take public health policy with him to his new home, at the Children’s Ministry, but it would appear Mr Varadkar is none too keen on the transfusion of responsibilities.

After insisting he would not lower himself to a “silly turf war” with Dr Reilly (‘silly turf war’ alert!), Mr Varadkar then delivered the most delicious political put-down of the week.

“There is enough to do in the health space, much more than I can possibly handle, so I will be very keen to delegate stuff both to Minister of State Lynch and also to Minister Reilly.”

Note that when Mr Varadkar is “delegating” the work he cannot be bothered with, his junior minister, Kathleen Lynch, is higher up the pecking order than his Cabinet colleague.

Mr Varadkar’s only big ‘idea’ is to abandon the bad ‘idea’ of universal health insurance (UHI).

People thought they were already paying for the health service, so giving them ‘free’ care at the cost of €1,200 a year, for child and adult alike, did not seem like much of a bargain.

Dr Reilly and the Taoiseach seemed unable to explain their objectives, as targets were missed and sands shifted.

We were repeatedly told we would be following the “Dutch model”.

Then, this suddenly changed to the “German model” — and that German model might as well have been Claudia Schiffer, for all the clarity ministers brought to the argument.

Now, the political reality of heaping an extra health tax on top of people, as they struggle with the botched water tax and hated property tax, as a general election begins to loom into view, has finally forced an about turn.

Mr Varadkar admitted that a fear of forcing another financial burden on families fed into the U-turn.

He said: “That’s certainly a consideration. If you make everyone have a requirement for health insurance, it’s going to cost.”

The highly ambitious Mr Varadkar is clearly determined to switch the poison chalice of Health, given to him by Mr Kenny, into the loving cup of a future leadership battle, and in this he is lucky in his rivals.

Frances Fitzgerald is beginning to look increasingly overwhelmed by the sprawling Justice Department she was propelled into with a reform agenda.

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney’s response to the loss of €232m in food-and-drink exports to Russia was so laid-back he may as well have been announcing from a sun lounger his big idea of a telephone helpline for farmers.

Indeed, Mr Coveney seemed much more exercised when ambushed by former FG agriculture minister, Ivan Yates, on Newstalk Breakfast, who demanded to know what Simon was going to do about “the lumpy milk in my tea?”

As Mr Coveney, like a particularly humourless automaton, spouted computer speak about Ireland having the highest milk hygiene standards in the world, cringing listeners were no doubt thinking: “Erm, yes minister — he’s just joking with you.”

And Mr Varadkar has form for turning a tricky situation to his advantage, as when he raised eyebrows by accepting an invite to the men-only St Patrick’s Day dinner in Savannah, Georgia, which Eamon Gilmore had boycotted and branded “segregationist” the year before.

Smashing their cosy, nostalgic notions of an Ireland where women knew their place, and gay people were still criminalised and, therefore, not ‘uppity’ enough to dare seek to march in the Paddy’s Day parade, Mr Varadkar told the dinner: “We must remember the spirit of Robert Emmet and recognise that real change requires that we find the courage within ourselves to make our future as it ought to be — free and independent, equal and just — Catholic, Protestant, believer and non-believer, gay, straight, male, female.”

It was not what his backward-looking audience wanted to hear, and he must now use that type of blunt talk to tell people at home what they may well not want to acknowledge, and set out a vision of real change for the HSE.

Mr Varadkar showed political spine over the whistleblower scandal, but he needs to raise his ministerial game in this portfolio as, with no roads cash, Transport was a bit of a drive-by department, but Health is the toughest gig in Cabinet and we need to know what he is going to build, not just what needs to be torn down due to electoral opportunism.

His bluffness was on display again when, in another slice of the surgical knife into Dr Reilly, Mr Varadkar said he could not even give a vague date on when a new UHI would be brought in, because “I think we made mistakes in the past by putting dates on things and then not delivering.”

While promising something and not living up to it is one thing, Mr Varadkar is now in danger of promising absolutely nothing at all — except getting his party through a sticky election, so he can then topple Enda as leader.