Fine Gael farce at Fota as bash turns into slap-happy event

Slap, bang, wallop — what a Fota farce.

As Fine Gael gathered at Cork’s swanky Fota Island Resort for their annual pre-Dáil “think-in” they should have been looking to the future, but after Enda Kenny decided to get a lunge into his ambitious Health Minister Leo Varadkar all the talk was of the problems of the recent past.

After receiving the highly unusual public dressing down from the Taoiseach, Mr Varadkar decided to take it on the chin.

“I don’t mind being slapped down or scolded, I’m a big boy and I’m willing to take a degree of criticism from time to time but, at the same time, this isn’t about me, it’s not about my dignity, it’s not about my ego, it’s about frontline staff and it’s about patients and it’s about our health services which affect all of us,” the health minister bluffly announced.

But while Mr Kenny was intent to get another dig in with a warning to Mr Varadkar he could not “shirk” from Government policy, the health minister was digging in, insisting he had not apologised to Mr Kenny over his budget comments.

“That’s not quite the case. The Taoiseach was very clear that he doesn’t want ministers to be speculating about the details of the budget and he’s totally right about that.

“But at the same time I’m the minister for health, I believe I have a responsibility to defend health services and I am going to continue to do that and as well as that I am very committed to health sector reform but that has to happen in a way that is workable and deliverable and I think the Taoiseach understands that very well,” Mr Varadkar stated.

Mr Varadkar had dared suggest on radio that the “five or ten euro a week” that people may get in next month’s budget might be better going on services, specifically, the health service.

Refusing to say whether he could deliver the Government promise to bring in free GP care for children under six by the end of the year added to Mr Kenny fury.

Referring to Mr Varadkar’s claim that the policy could not be implemented without the agreement of the IMO, Mr Kenny said that was all well and good, before pointedly adding: “He’s quite right to be able to reflect on that, but he is not shirking what government policy is here.”

After a bit of drive-by patronisation of Mr Varadkar with comments about how young he is and that he will be given “help” in getting a grip on health, the Taoiseach then attacked civil servants — or in the language of Yes, Prime Minister, Sir Humphreys — who said in the review prepared for all new ministers that James Reilly’s plans for introducing universal health insurance were “unworkable”.

“Leo’s a new minister given a most challenging portfolio. What annoyed me was the fact that when a new minister goes over to the department, that they’d obviously been preparing for his arrival and presented him with a document of what I understand was 300 pages indicating what you cannot do. Government is about making decisions and making changes that impact on people’s lives for their betterment, and what we have to do in the health area is to move to what Government policy is.

“Sir Humphreys, if you like to call it that, presented the new minister with a very large document of ‘why you cannot go ahead here’,” Mr Kenny told Newstalk.

In an echo of Margaret Thatcher’s famous plea to her cabinet to bring her “solutions not problems”, Mr Kenny kicked off the spat by declaring: “I am far more interested in hearing how you set about achieving what the Government’s targets are instead of giving endless, endless volumes of recommendations telling me why things can’t be done.”

But instead of delivering one of Mrs T’s legendary “hand-baggings”, many Fine Gael TDs fear he has only succeeded in shooting himself, and the party, in the foot.

A number of TDs also see Mr Kenny slap-down as counterproductive as it merely enhances Mr Varadkar’s status in a lot of voters eyes as the minister who tells it like it is, and boosts his chances of in the next leadership tussle.

While trying to look tough, Mr Kenny has turned the spotlight on the chaotic nature of a health department under Fine Gael control for the past three and a half years.

On taking over the health role in the July reshuffle, Mr Varadkar made it clear the Taoiseach had put him there with one eye on the next general election as he deftly abandoned the much derided and delayed UHI initiative he inherited from Dr Reilly.

But just as he tries to bring reality to a department Dr Reilly allowed to stagger from one controversy to the next, Mr Varadkar has been warned to watch his step by Mr Kenny.

Mr Varadkar insists he is a big boy, and while big boys may not cry, they do tend to throw their weight around when they get the chance.

Mr Kenny’s slap-down has left Leo licking his wounds — and biding his time for the next leadership bid.