Speaking today, Deputy Tóibín said: “Under Varadkar’s leadership, Fine Gael have not won any elections. He has been a failure by any objective measure when one looks at the rising housing and healthcare crises. In recent times his survival method seems to have been to capitulate to NGOs and culture wars. He emerged from the recent referendum results extremely weakened. The office of Taoiseach has already been passed around like snuff at a wake, without democratic mandate since the last election, what we face now is a third Taoiseach since the election. This is wrong and undemocratic. Leo Varadkar should have done the right thing and called a general election to be held on the same day as the local and European elections.”
Deputy Tóibín continued: “In October 2019, Leo Varadkar, as Taoiseach, apologised to the women wronged by the CervicalCheck scandal and promised that no woman would ever have to go through courts again to get justice. Despite that promise, four years later more than 170 women have done just that and have gone through the court system to get justice. Leo Varadkar was Minister for Health at the time the CervicalCheck scandal happened. However, he said he has no recollection of being informed of it. As Minister for Health, Leo Varadkar said, short of an asteroid hitting this planet, the national children’s hospital would be built for €750 million and open by 2020. It is currently double that cost – the cost could reach €2 billion before it is open – and will not be open until 2025. It is an incredible situation that a party which prides itself as a party of prudence is actually the party that is presiding over serious cost overruns across capital projects.”
“When Leo Varadkar was in his last year as Taoiseach, 35 of the 38 most significant capital projects in the State were over budget, including the national broadband plan, the national maternity hospital and others. It seems that when one puts the word “national” beside a capital project in this country, it adds hundreds of millions of euro to the cost and puts the project way over time. On his way out of health, Deputy Varadkar cut the mental health budget in the State by a third. His record speaks for itself. We need an election this side of the summer recess.” concluded Tóibín.
