Strong words from the Fianna Fáil leader.
Micheál Martin didn’t hold back in his criticism for Taoiseach Leo Varadkar during his appearance on Friday evening’s Late Late Show.
Martin contended that his Fine Gael rival lacks humility and is “obsessed” with his relationship with the media.
“He operates differently,” offered Martin when host Ryan Tubridy attempted to contrast the two political figures.
“I think he’s very obsessed in terms of the media presentation. Everything is through the lens of how it’s perceived,” Martin added.
He recalled a meeting between the pair in Killarney during the summer in which they discussed plans to work together in respect of the confidence-and-supply arrangement throughout the remainder of the year and would meet again to iron things out.
“The following day, there was a big front page headline – ‘Leo tells Micheál he wants two more years’ – now, I don’t do business that way and I think that he could do with a degree more humility, maybe.”
Tubridy then asked if Martin felt let down by the situation.
“I just thought it was a bit immature in terms of the approach and I think that it was wrong, because you have to build up trust with people.
“He must respect the fact that we have facilitated the formation and continuation of a government, and then I get a long letter on the 30th of August and I’m told I must update the cabinet. I read that straight away as code for ‘I’m issuing a press release’ but that’s not communication, that’s not building up a relationship with people.”
Asked if he felt that the Taoiseach was immature in other ways, Martin was neutral, noting that he and Varadkar get on “personally well” and are civil with one another.
“Look, I’m not into personalities,” he said.
“I’m into the policy of playing the ball, not the man. That’s not my style. What I call immature was the behaviour in Killarney. I’ve been in negotiations in the North, I’ve negotiated with Unionists – you have to earn the confidence of people because people are coming at it from different perspectives.”
Clip via The Late Late Show
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