GAVAN REILLY COLUMN: Does Leo really need a team of PR handlers?

 Does Leo really need a team of PR handlers?

Leo Varadkar has now been in charge of Fine Gael for three months, and occupying the Taoiseach’s office for just two weeks less. 
His first budget is six weeks away, and gives him his first chance to put his own imprint on modern Ireland.
But you could be forgiven, however, for thinking that his first three months in office should have been more productive than they’ve turned out. 
Varadkar’s standout policy shift to date has been on Brexit – by confrontationally telling the UK his government won’t take any role in designing a border, which itself is more of a hardened position than a U-turn.

 

Instead it seems Varadkar is a little more preoccupied with the public gloss of high office. Take, for example, the push towards establishing a new ‘strategic communications unit’ inside Government Buildings, which already carries its own communications unit, press officers, and a coterie of special advisors. 
The new unit is to be run by John Concannon, an impressive man who led the 1916 centenary commemorations, and who is a capable choice for any role – but what exactly is his job? What is his new unit supposed to communicate, that cannot be communicated by anyone else?
Parts of the Varadkar playbook will be difficult for some to deal with. 
Unlike Enda Kenny, whose Twitter account was managed by senior staff on his behalf, Varadkar writes all his own tweets personally – and isn’t afraid to be confrontational in doing so. 
His direct criticism of George Hook last week, after commentary around his visit to Canada, is a sign of how he won’t always need to hide behind a PR team. Nor is he afraid of one-on-one interviews, as his predecessor seemed to be.
Which begs the question: why be so concerned about others spreading a political message, when Varadkar himself is already ideally placed to do it?

Pylon pressure on Regina as she tries to walk EirGrid tightrope

They say a week is a long time in politics – in which case, eight months must seem like an eternity. It was only eight months ago that the Government chief whip backed a campaign of civil disobedience by her constituents, as they tried to derail a policy being pushed by her own government.
But it’s now eight months later and that chief whip has been promoted to a central role in Government – and can’t simply walk away from her job over a constituency matter.
That is the tricky situation facing Regina Doherty, who no doubt would have hoped the High Court could derail the current plans for the North-South Interconnector. Instead, as you will have read in these pages last week, it has dismissed the challenge by the NEPPC – who must now pull together the resources for a further challenge to the Court of Appeal, which also has to be convinced to hear the matter in the first place.

Doherty’s loyalty to local landowners, and sympathy for their concerns, is not to be dismissed. The people of Meath, Cavan and Monaghan have good reason to be concerned about the impact of the 300 planned pylons on their properties and landscapes, and are fully entitled to prioritise their own concerns over the broader needs of the country as a whole.

But that’s what the problem lies for Doherty. Her duty as a TD for Meath East is to be the voice of her constituents, but her duty as a cabinet minister is to cater to the concerns of the country as a whole. Not only is Doherty now an integral part of Leo Varadkar’s cabinet, but she holds his old job as Minister for Social Protection – giving her not only the biggest budget in cabinet, of nearly €20 billion, but also the responsibility for continuing Varadkar’s old campaigns such as his contentious clampdown on welfare fraud.

I should point out, of course, that the same difficulties are true for her Fine Gael colleague Helen McEntee, who’s also been a vocal supporter of putting the power lines underground. 
As a junior minister, though, McEntee has a little more latitude to kick up a fuss or present herself as an agitator from outside.
That’s a card that Doherty can no longer play. As Chief Whip, the person responsible for ensuring voting discipline, Doherty held a position of quiet influence where she could effectively veto any vote that might prove personally difficult for her. Last February, when Fianna Fáil called for an independent review of the overground pylon plans, Doherty convinced her party not to bother voting against it and accept a quiet Dáil defeat. That’s the sort of understated influence a chief whip can wield.

As a senior minister, however, she’ll have to tread more carefully – and make the case against pylons more diplomatically to her independent colleague Denis Naughten, who issued a glowing statement last December when they got planning permission in the first place. Naughten also has national concerns to worry about, and urgently needs progress on the inter-connector. It won’t be an easy job for Doherty.

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