Leo Varadkar
@LeoVaradkar · Europe
Leo Varadkar is followed by Storyz World for government and public service coverage connected to Ireland in the Europe chapter.
Pleased to see Switzerland🇨🇭moving towards a nationwide ban on so-called 'conversion therapies'. Same cantons already have bans in place
Encouraging to see this. The contract was signed in a rural school in west wicklow less than 7 years ago. At the time, this multi-billion euro investment was opposed by every major political party bar one (Fine Gael) and faced strong objections from the Department of Public Expenditure. Now, it is likely to come in under budget and on time. It's a very different story to the new National Children's Hospital but I don't think we will think either were a bad investment soon enough. We should not be too cautious about doing big infrastructure projects. There's no political benefit at the time. If anything the opposite. It's best just to accept that and press on.
A few more examples today of minimum and median getting mixed up in the media. This is not the income you need to buy a home in the relevant counties. It's the income you need to be able to afford half the homes, on the market, in that county. Maths matters. Granted - this doesn't change the fact that homes remain unaffordable for lots of people. That's true too.
Interesting, timely intervention by UK former PM Gordon Brown. I don't agree that a united Ireland is "inevitable'' if only because history teaches us that nothing is inevitable in politics! I do believe it likely - demographics and geopolitics bends toward it. But, we have to work for it and not assume it can happen organically or by osmosis. I do agree with Brown that it will be a 'long process'. Stage 1 - build a stable majority in the North and greater understanding of the project in the South before a referendum takes place. Stage 2 - win the referendum. Stage 3 - transition and integration of the two jurisdictions. It will take decades. And yes, there will always be other pressing issues to be resolved - and resolved they should be. This is much much bigger than that - the political project of our generation. Building a New and Agreed Ireland. Éire Aontaithe. Let's do it.
Writing today about how a well designed and well communicated Savings Investment Account (SIA) can grow household wealth, help indigenous business to scale and trigger a culture change in Ireland by giving millions of people a stake in a the markets. It could be the most important long-term announcement this Budget Day https://t.co/s74HjTmKNo