Prime minister

Leo Varadkar sounds insensitive about housing costs ... The modern Irish state was born 100 years ago this month, yet only two political movements have ever ruled ...

With 34% in that poll, the party that is likely to end up with the most seats after the next election is Sinn Fein (We Ourselves), formerly the political wing of the Provisional ira, a later and bloodier version of the Irish Republican Army. Now, their combined support is down to only 40% in a recent poll in the Irish Independent, and they are locked in a cold and probably doomed marriage of convenience. Under a “rotating taoiseach” deal thrashed out after an election in 2020, Fianna Fail’s leader, Micheal Martin, got to be PM for the first half of the current term of parliament. “Fine Gael do realise the level of the housing problem, and its toxicity, but he doesn’t seem to be able to help himself.” Leo Varadkar, who served as taoiseach (prime minister) from 2017 to 2020, and whose party has been in government for the past 11 years, noted that “considering emigration is not the same as actually doing it, and many do come back.” Born out of the struggle for independence from Britain, both Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) and Fine Gael (Tribe of the Gaels) have evolved into right-of-centre, pragmatic, pro-European parties.