Mick Clifford: Varadkar has a taxing time lashing out at inconvenient truths

We can all put our hands to our ears and pretend it's not happening but those who lead have a responsibility to prepare for massive change

Leo Varadkar’s comments were described by housing charity Threshold as ‘very unhelpful’, setting a precedent for how politicians might react to future commissions in areas such as housing.

Leo Varadkar reached in to his inner Michael Gove this week. During the Brexit referendum in 2016, Gove famously said that “the people of this country have had enough of experts”.

What Gove was really conveying was that he didn’t want to hear what the experts had to say about how Brexit would impact on the economy because it conflicted with his political aims. He was, in effect, putting his hands up to his ears as might a five-year-old who prefers to hear only what he wants about the big, bad world out there.