There have been sharp exchanges in the Dáil this afternoon as Taoiseach Micheál Martin warned Opposition leader Mary Lou McDonald of standing on “high moral ground” regarding her criticism of a leaked document.
Sinn Féin leader Ms McDonald said Tánaiste Leo Varadkar’s claim that he was acting in the public’s interest when he handed over confidential documents had been “exposed as absolute spin”.
Mr Varadkar spoke publicly for the first time yesterday after it emerged he leaked Government documents relating to a GP contract deal with the Irish Medical Organisation to a rival organisation.
“Leo Varadkar’s core alibi that he was operating a strategy to get the national association of general practitioners on board in the public interest were blown out of the water,” Ms McDonald said.
“This was a dig-out for a friend and a political ally whose organisation was in freefall and who needed the information contained in that contract to try and fight for his organisation’s survival.”
Sometimes it’s dangerous to stand on the high moral ground and that’s where Deputy McDonald has positioned on this issue.
The Taoiseach described Mr Varadkar’s actions at the time as “not best practice, inappropriate and the wrong way to deal with that issue and the wrong thing to do”.
Mr Martin said he accepted the Tánaiste’s actions were an error of judgment and that Mr Varadkar had apologised for that.
However, Ms McDonald asked the Taoiseach what action he was going to take over the matter or whether he expected Irish people to “take it on the chin”.
“When a serving member of Cabinet... states in the Dáil that they have before leaked confidential information from Cabinet, I think people expect action to be taken,” she said.
The Taoiseach responded that he was not accountable for the last Government.
Mr Martin added: “Sometimes it’s dangerous to stand on the high moral ground and that’s where Deputy McDonald has positioned on this issue and people’s alleged connections.
“It’s a dangerous place to be. I think you and your movement should approach it with a greater degree of humility.”
Social Democrats co-leader Roisin Shortall said the past few days had been “damaging” to Government and by extension “damaging to politics”.
Ms Shortall said Mr Varadkar had been “exposed for engaging in what can only be described as grubby activity for grubby purposes”.
She claimed Mr Varadkar had “ludicrously” dressed the issue up as having a legitimate objective and “laughingly” claimed that he was honouring Government commitments.
“This insults people’s intelligence,” the Ms Shortall told the Dáil.
“I think most people saw this episode for what it was. It was patently untrue for the Tánaiste to claim that. He engaged in a deliberate distortion of the truth.”
