© Gareth Chaney Collins Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Minister for Health Simon Harris

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A friend of mine has a phrase that bluntly describes people who have no concept of the real world: “No Kids, No Clue.” She’s being flippant, of course. You don’t have to be a parent to grasp the life-changing shift children bring. But it helps. It’s an inconvenient truth that many of those in Fine Gael’s Cabinet have a variation or a combination of no life experience, no adversity, no kids and no clue.



It’s a point that shouldn’t be lost following the controversy around the batch of objectionable comments made by now rightly-suspended Sinn Fein councillor Paddy Holohan. He emptied the contents of his head in a series of ill-thought out, fact-free opinions about mad stuff that many understandably felt smacked of homophobia, racism and misogyny.

But he was right when he said that working parents want someone in power who knows what their lives are like. I shouldn’t have to say this, but to be clear – this has nothing to do with the Taoiseach’s sexuality. Not that it should have – we have all kinds of families in Ireland today in a modern inclusive country I’m proud to live in.

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It doesn’t mean we don’t recognise that, for example, the three main leaders – in housing, health and the office of the Taoiseach – haven’t walked in our shoes. A rite of passage on becoming a parent is that you realise how many variables there are in life. One rug-pull and many of us could end up in trouble. Ordinary people know it, and it’s basic knowledge in political theory.



© Stock images Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (inset) and Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy It’s a factor in why people think the Government is out of touch. It often feels like someone has accidentally let in a bunch of Trinners’ students to run the country. Fine Gael and friends are mostly posh, privileged, entitled. Their mentality is short-term and self-serving.

Their vision doesn’t stretch beyond their own station in life. They lack awareness of what is reality for many of us. They act more like kids than parents. “Mum and Dad” can give you the deposit for your house, according to Varadkar, who tried to tell us that such a set-up “isn’t a mark of privilege”. It’s not only privileged, it’s pathetic. Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy talks like someone removed from real life, looking down at it from above.

He says co-living housing is like “very trendy boutique hotels”. Would he be OK with his progress in life, renting a bedroom for €1,400 a month and cooking and eating with strangers? Or is that just OK for other people? As satirist Oliver Callan nailed it: “Leo thought it was a good idea to find the poshest man in Ireland and put him in charge of homelessness.”

Varadkar’s most pressing concern at Christmas was the non-issue of nightclub opening hours, which he said were “archaic” and “disappointing” as though he was morto the pubs closed early before he got the last round in.

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His festive adventures – a Christmas Day swim, followed by a day at the races and a trip to India to see in the New Year – were the kind of time-rich stuff most busy working parents would have down the very end of their wish list, maybe after they’d ticked off going to see The Irishman and used up a spa weekend gift voucher. As for Katherine Zappone, is she really the best-placed person in Ireland to understand children’s needs?

She seems more interested in liberal academic credentials and identity politics than issues that directly affect children. Inertia is her defining characteristic as Children’s Minister, which is particularly shameful considering the amount of children in hotels since she took the job has reached 4,000. Did she have any thoughts on Sam, the little boy pictured eating his dinner on the street in Dublin?

Health Minister Simon Harris – who became a father last year – suddenly got a specific interest in childhood vaccinations when it was an issue that affected him. Mary Lou McDonald previously pointed out to Leo that, as a working parent, she had a full understanding of the pressures of childcare issues and costs.

Ireland has a proud history of making significant social change when the comfortable rise up on behalf of the uncomfortable. We have a track record for empathy – and I hope we see it in action on February 8. There are many incredible people in private and public life, involved in social change in Ireland, who may or may not have children, and who may or may not have ever faced financial stress.

Good politicians have the intelligence and the compassion to see the lives of those in different circumstances. And consider themselves one of us.

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