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The Tánaiste has not been offered any political acquittal tonight.
The Taoiseach believes that what Leo Varadkar did in April 2019 was not appropriate.
The same is the case with the Green Party, which says that “transmitting sensitive information in this way is not appropriate.”
The timelines and full impact of the disclosure on all involved need further scrutiny, a statement from the party reads.
All this despite the permanent contact between the three leaders of the Government parties today.
Leo Varadkar will make a new statement and answer questions in the Dáil next week.
That process in the midst of a political controversy is always something of a tightrope walk, even for the most skilled politicians.
Leo Varadkar has admitted that providing a general medical agreement reached with the Irish Medical Organization to a rival group of doctors was not the best practice.
He regrets that it was not provided to the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) in a more formal and appropriate manner.
In a statement, he said that the copy of the agreement given to Dr. Maitiú Ó Tuathail, in his capacity as president of the NAGP, was to encourage acceptance of the agreement among the general practitioner community.
The Tánaiste also said that essential details of the deal were made public at the time in April last year, describing allegations that it had violated laws and protocols as extremely defamatory and inaccurate.
In a statement from Village magazine, the source of this story, it points out that Dáil’s file shows that then-Fianna Fáil health spokesman Stephen Donnelly was unable to access that confidential document at the time.
Stephen Donnelly then said: “GPs haven’t seen it. The public hasn’t seen it and we haven’t seen it.”
Sinn Féin’s Louise O’Reilly and Social Democrats’ co-leader Róisín Shortall also told Dáil on April 16, 2019 that they had not been able to obtain fine details of the deal.
Everything suggests that the agreement passed to the NAGP was a precious asset.
How the then-Taoiseach did this raises questions about his judgment and that will be the focus of much scrutiny in the Dáil next week.
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