Leo Varadkar Source: PA Wire/PA Images

TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR says that he is in discussions with RTÉ about moving the timing of his Ard Fheis speech to avoid clashing with the Ireland-Denmark World Cup playoff.

Ireland will take on the Danes in Copenhagen on the night of Saturday 11 November at the same time Varadkar is supposed to be making his keynote address to his party’s annual Ard Fheis in Dublin.

“We’re obviously in discussions with RTÉ about different options,” he said this evening in advance of the Fine Gael presidential dinner at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin.

Leo in discussions with RTE about moving broadcast time of his FG conference speech so it doesn't clash with Ireland game pic.twitter.com/yGs4gGHOiA — Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) October 21, 2017 Source: Christina Finn /Twitter

I think it’s fair to say that the vast majority of people and the vast majority of the Fine Gael faithful would rather watch Ireland take on Denmark than listen to me.

So we are seeing if we can change that to a different time, and it’s our intention to do so.

Varadkar was also asked about the ongoing tracker mortgage scandal, and said that he is “frustrated with the lack of progress made to date”.

“The government is taking this matter very seriously… and we’re certainly not ruling out further regulation, further sanctions or additional taxation as the case may be.”

The Taoiseach was speaking in advance of his own address at tonight’s dinner, which he began by paying “special tribute” to his own predecessor Enda Kenny.

“Your contribution to this party – and to this country – was immense, and will never be forgotten. We thank you for it,” he said.

#Open journalism No news is bad news Support The Journal Your contributions will help us continue to deliver the stories that are important to you Support us now

‘Latte socialists’

He went on to take aim at Fianna Fáil “who claim they have a monopoly on compassion, (but) which consistently failed to show compassion when they were in office themselves” before moving on to Sinn Féin (a consistent target for his scorn in recent times) and what he described as the “latte socialists” of the left of Irish politics.

Micheál Martin is a formidable politician,” he said. “He became a TD during the Haughey era, he became a minister during the Ahern era, and he became an expert during the Cowen era, and he’s spent the last seven years learning to be the new kid on the block.

Regarding the left, he said: “Some of them have tried to dismiss this budget as only providing a cup of coffee a week for people.”

“I’d advise these latte socialists to think again about where they buy their coffee. ”

Because if you can’t be trusted to spend your own money carefully, how can you be trusted with other people’s?