Off-radar pay deal for judges: Tory Boy tag is beginning to ring true

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s suggestion that any comparison between pay increases granted to judges and the HSE support workers strike is “bogus and misleading” is, as Boris Johnson might harrumph while waving his arms, poppycock.

Just as Boris Johnson imagines his get-off-me adventures are not relevant to the public he expects to accept him as their prime minister should his plans bear fruit, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s suggestion that any comparison between pay increases granted to judges and the HSE support workers strike is “bogus and misleading” is, as Boris might harrumph while waving his arms, poppycock.

That the judges’ pay was dealt with at a private meeting of the Oireachtas Finance Committee earlier this week suggests the issue is regarded as incendiary. And it should be so regarded. Maybe so incendiary that Mr Varadkar will order an investigation to establish who left the cat out of the bag — just as he has done in the case of Maria Bailey.