Leo Varadkar 'taken to school' after challenging state of Irish infrastructure

Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was ‘taken to school’ this week after he challenged a ‘stark’ graph on the state of Irish infrastructure and public services. The past week has been a tense time as protestors took to the streets in response to rising fuel costs. The fuel costs come amid the ongoing war in Iran but many have felt aggrieved by the Government’s handling of the crisis. Leo Varadkar. Pic: Sasko Lazarov/© RollingNews.ie Space and defense economist and investor Sinéad O’Sullivan took to social media to explain what the root cause of the anger was — and it wasn’t fuel! Sharing a graph on X, Sinéad O’Sullivan detailed that while Ireland was the second wealthiest among other modern and developed countries, the country got ‘waaaaay less’ in terms of infrastructure and public services. ‘It’s a lack of infrastructure and the everyday enshittification of services, the economy, and the additional difficulty of trying to live, relative to peers in any other country,’ the former employee at Harvard Business School explained. The graph showed that while Ireland was just second behind Denmark in terms of wealth per capita, the country was the worst off in terms of infrastructure and public services. Sinead detailed: ‘That gap is a three hour drive to work in traffic, a 14 month wait for an MRI, buses that don’t arrive, trains that don’t exist, schools that have no places for your kids, houses that are unaffordable, pubs that close before midnight, €12 sandwiches and expensive fuel.’ Among those who weighed in on the graph shared by Sinead was former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar who said it ‘doesn’t really stack up.’ Leo Varadkar. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Archive/PA Images He responded that life expectancy in Ireland, which he shared was proxy for health outcomes, was the seventh in Europe. ‘Education, we rank 1st for those who have a third-level education and significantly better than OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] average in school performance,’ the ex-Dublin politician said. ‘Prices much higher but so are wages,’ he conceded. Sinead was quick to respond, as she explained: ‘Life expectancy measures wealth and demographics, not health infrastructure which is in here. ‘Ireland has the highest bed occupancy in the OECD, 43% fewer beds than the EU average, 900,000 on waiting lists, and 75% of GP lists closed to new patients.’ In response to Varadkar’s point on graduates, Sinead retaliated that 35,000 of those newly graduated emigrated last year due to the cost of living. Pic: Getty Images Varadkar then called Sinead out on ‘picking data points that suited the outcome you wanted.’ The former Harvard Business School staffer hit out at the former Taoiseach for his 13 years in government and challenging the graph. ‘Thankfully only one of us teaches economics,’ she said, ‘You wouldn’t even get into my class.’ Leo Varadkar. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie The graph alone had generated a response, the former Fine Gael leader weighing in had people hitting the comments. ‘Sinead torching Leo,’ one wrote, ‘More of this please.’ Another said: ‘Varadkar goes back to school.’

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