TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has published his first weekly message to “let you know about [his] work as Taoiseach”.

His predecessor, Enda Kenny used to send out weekly messages in written format, but in a statement this evening, he said that he would be doing it in video form from now on.

Enda Kenny favoured a textual approach.

In the message, which is posted on Fine Gael’s Facebook page, the Taoiseach begins by describing events in the North and the impasse between the DUP and Sinn Féin.

He said his meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “went well” and that they had good discussions on trade, and also discussed the new National Cancer Strategy and efforts on the upcoming budget underway at the Department of Finance.

He also talked at length about the bin charges controversy, which came to the fore this week.

There are, however, multiple criticisms of the sound quality in the video in the comments under the post, with some users claiming the background noise is distracting.

“Sound quality is shocking”, “sound needs a bit of tweaking,” and “background noise / white noise makes it hard to listen to” are some of the comments under the post so far.

Varadkar has been under fire for comments last night about the gardaí in the Jobtown trial, but there was no mention of that in the message.

He closes: “A reasonably good week overall, and I look forward to talking to you again next week.”