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Leo has lost his lustre

standardg60

Having been a fan initially i have to say i'm now finding him extremely dithery and am unhappy with the change of leadership. Can't help but feel the leaking controversy has affected him personally and rightly so, despite the official findings imo it was disgraceful behaviour for a Minister. MM seemed so much better as a leader and comes across as still being as such, feels a bit like king Charles after the queen, everybody knows Leo is now leader but it just justn't feel right.

I think he should have resigned now for both him and the Government as a whole, and for FG going forward. I don't see how he can occupy the moral high ground anymore.

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FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369029#Comment_120369029

Go on, show us those headlines about other Taoisigh fulfilling their committments?

I suspect your 'imagination' will be putting in for overtime TBH.

Count Dracula

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369085#Comment_120369085

You generate your own luck with the media. He has never played them well at all. It has backfired when you consider how anal he has been in the past with some of the crazies, they write an awful amount of untrue, unbalanced, subjective here say tripe and other malign about him. He is constantly getting hammered.

In fairness this is hardly indicative of a solid eminency. Any Taoisighí worth their salt should have the pigs petrified of them? Anyone not toeing the line should not get any comment and let them crank it out to anyone listening. He needs to start kicking some ass and taking more names, he has a great ruthless streak, he needs to use it.

I sound like angry smurf there, but not enough journalists digging around Parnell Street's back door of eternal favours? Quite the wee movement that they have going there.

I still love him though. He is the best man for the job, I find his weaknesses catalyse his endearing strength. ( anyone else uses that and I a suing, ok?)

Is there any peppermint milkshakes left?

whisky_galore

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369100#Comment_120369100

Pffft only $400 a plate, did they have chicken nuggets and chips?

https://m.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/taoiseach-to-meet-us-president-joe-biden-at-1000-per-plate-gala-dinner-in-washington-41448527.html

road_high

Even for an aloof oddball like Varadkar the Clinton comment is bizzare- they are scared cows for lefty champagne progressives like Leo.

Water John

Leo is having breakfast with Kamala. Both of Indian heritage, hope they build a good rappore.

Loafing Oaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369580#Comment_120369580

must be a frustrated stand-up, would sacrifice everything for an attempted gag

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-limit-does-not-exist-taoiseach-leo-varadkar-quotes-mean-girls-in-latest-announcement-39300367.html

Seneca the Stoic

For someone who is objectively smart (qualified doctor) and obsessive over curating his image, he is an absolute disaster for the old foot-in-mouth gaffes.

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120368912#Comment_120368912

Martin is one of a good few politicians that I've written to, who has actually replied in a thoughtful & detailed way. And I'd be amazed if you ever came across a video of him all over a young wan. I'd say your mother is safe enough with him.

72sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120369085#Comment_120369085

Saladin, you are clearly misunderstanding what happened. The scenes captured on the video depicted a completely normal social interaction between a 45 year old Prime Minister and a young voter. Leo's gaffe in DC was to show he's not embarrassed even if the FG party faithful back home are still traumatised. As they say, the best form of defence is attack :-)

road_high

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120370146#Comment_120370146

There’s one kind of intelligence money can’t buy and that’s the emotional kind- he’s shaped by a pretty privileged life experience and upbringing.

CinnteDearfach

'Has Leo lost his luster?', what a question. It shows what some of the public think of his current performance as Taoiseach, but also highlights how others want him to perform.

A young Leo walked into Leinster House in early 2007, before bankers, politicians, businessmen, or even him, were evil. Leo quickly found he has the great ability to play people, which he probably had time to perfect as a member of YFG in the late 90s. He knew the success of FG, he knew what the party could be and had to be. Starting internally the moment he arrived to Leinster House, within ten years, he has successfully coup'd Enda out and managed to wave off Coveney as well; making sure to give him the nice 'coushie' job as Minister for Foreign Affairs - i.e. lots of holiday time and a front-row seat for International Politics (not before making a fool of him during the early days of the Independent-FG coalition. Re: Shane Ross, In Bed With The Blueshirts).

This ruthless nature of politics, with a smile, was where his "luster" came from. Leo managed to get his way at every step of the build-up. Lies told, opinions drastically changing, "The man for people who get up in the morning", the working middle's man. But, Leo knew it was not sustainable. Varadkar has been painting himself as the sound bloke, the relatable guy in a room full to the brim of freaks, what Leo has failed to do is make friends with those same freaks.

At some point which I can only imagine he was surprised about, the Taoiseach seat was taken away from him and given to Micháel who, quite successfully, managed to stay out of trouble for most of the time. During this time Leo saw The Leak begin, the spotlight spin 180 on him time and time again, an investigation, and a lot of backlash. The lies, the favours, the fickleness began to catch up. He had to play nice, for real this time, if he wants to insure he retains the seat now that he knew what heart-break felt like. No more fast and loose politics, no more rash comments, and apologies prepared if a gaffe arrives. Leo a meticulous plan in place and has the media circus well-polished, the DC events, particularly the lack of coverage since the apology, proves to us and him that he's played the public and the media well enough.

[Deleted User]

Liked Varadkar. He called it as he saw it and shot from the hip. I thought from his experience as a mixed race and gay man he might have compassion. I was wrong.

He's vapid, interested in fashion and instagramming;and has no understanding of how the country could work for all, in fact he lacks any vision.

A real leader would not take **** from two bit punk civil servants like Robert Watt, or sell badly needed housing stock to foreign investment funds.

In my own industry forestry, there were serious problems and I told him what needed to be done. He couldn't give a flying fcuk. Nothing short of Kylie Minogue endorsing forestry or a group of bare-chested foresters will get him on board.

The guy is a total and utter disappointment.

Terrier2023

There is soo much raining down on him i think he is losing interest and a recent diatribe about his 12 years of failure including being the minister for housing has rattled him a bit. he looked bored and dis interested in a recent appearance. He has achieved it all been leader twice where else to go ? A nice big job in Europe or the WEF as his reward for un leashing havoc in ireland and sitting back and laughing at the chaos be it housing, immigration, selling out everything to vulture funds.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120510572#Comment_120510572

Would you rather the years Ireland was destroyed by recession? Plenty of houses available then to go along with the suicides.

If he looked disinterested, it's probably because he is leading a country of ungrateful ingrates with extraordinary short memories.

Seth Brundle

Give me someone in the mold of Sean Lemass or Des O'Malley any day.

Given that Lemass and O'Malley would have as much ability as Varadkar, MLMD or anyone else in creating houses magically, I'm not sure why you mention them. The human resources aren't there to do it. The materials aren't there. The sites aren't there.

Nobody can fix the property shortage issue in the short to medium term. Anyone that says they can is lying.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120514906#Comment_120514906

Who was it that kicked up a stink about co living? Who is it that is objecting to almost all large scale housing developments? Who is calling for eviction bans to stay, causing landlords to flee?

Hint: It wasn't Varadkar.

The general population are to blame, be careful what you wish for. In this case what policies and political parties you support in opinion polls.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515013#Comment_120515013

What I wish for is a leader who's not a sycophant but who has vision and is not afraid to call a spade a spade.

Leo could dish it out when in opposition and he called it right on that Garda whistleblower case.

He's sold out to his overseer Watt and his snouts-in-the-trough pals. Fact is this country when it was broke could build a big social housing base. Outsourcing it to the private sector has not worked. Admit the mistake and change tack. Can he not see that the instability caused to families and children by not having secure housing will down the road be detrimental to the stability of society and the state?

I don't advocate giving out public authority houses like sweets; for the minority of public authority tenants who are anti-social and who damage property, there must be accountability and sanction. The kid glove treatment does not work.

Hungry Burger

Leo is a chameleon politician. He has no principles or views, just says what he thinks will be popular in the time. He’s not left wing or right wing, he could be in any party bar Fine Gael and be exactly the same politician. He’ll wait until he thinks he knows which way the wind is blowing and throw out a right or left wing sound bite, whatever he thinks the masses will lap up, this is what makes people dislike him because he’ll do a 180 degree turn at the drop of a hat.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515685#Comment_120515685

Change tack to what? This is the problem. You cannot have a short term housing solution. With the likes of MLMD and the opposition mouthing about the problem (which has been brought about by decades of government neglect on the issue), they are looking for a short term fix which is impossible.

So when the anti social family get kicked out of their house and the kiddies have nowhere to go, what happens? Currently the likes of SF will hold them up as an example of how the government don't care about the people and whatever other politicised sob story they can portray in order to make it look damaging to the government parties.

So, you want the government to change tack. In what direction? How will this new direction increase the numbers of new builds? How will it make LLs decide that maybe staying in a rental market that is biased towards crap tenants isn't a bad thing?

[note that I'm not trying to sound like I'm supporting Leo & FG. I'm just fed up listening to the opposition talk bullsh1t about how the government are a failure and how they can sort it out]

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515739#Comment_120515739

Well, yeah?

Isn't that what you want in a politician? Someone not after to change their position as things evolve and societal norms change.

Abortion was seen as a sin years ago but as the risks to women become more apparent, society demands changes. Likewise Varadkar changed his view on it.

Would you rather he dug his heels in and continue to opose abortion and have pregnant women continue to die?

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515913#Comment_120515913

What about the report on available state land that could build 60k houses? Is it not possible to invoke emergency powers, immediately requisition the land and organize a building program? The country was saddled with €41.7 billion overnight to bail out private businesses. Where there's a will there's a way.

Seth Brundle

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120517178#Comment_120517178

Youre being a bit premature there! I obviously haven't seen the report (sure the cabinet haven't even seen it!) but from what I've read, there still are loads of issues in trying to release the land...

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/housing-planning/2023/03/28/government-has-potential-to-build-at-least-60000-affordable-homes-on-state-land/

Plus we don't have enough tradesmen to build those houses!

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120517178#Comment_120517178

You have a problem with people's life long savings being saved?

How would letting people's savings be wiped out help people buy houses? Let's see your sums, don't forget all calculations must be shown.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120517761#Comment_120517761

You miss my point.

If the financial crisis can be tackled in 12 hours, surely the housing crisis can be sorted with a bit of focus and urgency? We know what the issues are, we have the land identified. Exclude all planning hoops and begin building. There are dozens of blueprints of good house and estate plans.

It's that simple.

Perhaps the big problem is the public service folk who would be denied their paper shuffling exercises for a few years.

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120517314#Comment_120517314

The report also warned of big challenges to be overcome before other lands can be released for housing. It noted, for example, that large holdings of Army land at Cathal Brugha barracks in Rathmines were heavily “constrained” from a development perspective and were, therefore, not in line for the first or even second wave of building on State property.

What goddamned constraints?

If a building is burning the fire crew doesn't commission a report on how to deal with the fire.

Just do it. Invoke emergency powers. Bring in crews from Europe or Asia. It cannot be that difficult. Stop complicating the issue.

Del Griffith

Paddy moaner Cosgrave threatening to release private text messages about Leo now

https://twitter.com/paddycosgrave/status/1655960841773277193

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120577885#Comment_120577885

Always got the feeling that all of that stuff would continue to damage Varadkar. He'd be toxic in a new election campaign for that reason.

Pappacharlie

100% agree. Time for Leo to be moved on. Toxic is the word. Used to like him. Don't forget FG have a history of ousting leaders when the horses are spooked!(ask Alan Dukes!). Very much in that territory now.

Murph85

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120362928#Comment_120362928

Speaking Of social welfare. Fg increase it, constantly, far more concerned with frequent e200 cost of living bonuses, than people on minimum wage for example, scraping by, working, no bonus... varadkar lied when he said he would look after workers. Ffg biggest interest is the social welfare crowd...

[Deleted User]

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120515002#Comment_120515002

They've been in government for a decade and never even tried.

Housing crisis is always a long term project so the best time to start is always yesterday, next best is right now.

They should have been building social housing on public land a decade ago but that's just not the FG way. They've allowed a trademan population decline, cleared no public land, built/planned no schools or infrastructure.

They spent a decade leaving it to the "market". It's like their entire aim was simply to drive property prices up to boom levels again