Opinion: Leo Varadkar's disinterest in Northern Ireland makes him the perfect figure to reset protocol message, writes Newton Emerson
Many unionists believe the protocol was negotiated in bad faith, by exploiting an exaggerated risk of republican violence. Varadkar has come to be unfairly blamed for this, having cited the risk at an EU summit in October 2018. Blame has taken a sinister turn, with threats to the Taoiseach appearing on posters in loyalist areas.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar at a pre-Christmas media briefing in Government Buildings, Dublin. He said he intended to travel to Northern Ireland early in the new year as he signalled that securing a deal to resolve the impasse over the protocol was his priority. Photograph: Government Information Service/PA Wire
The police and intelligence services are wary of self-congratulation, as it would be provocative and premature. The British and Irish governments do not want to turn security co-operation, a last bastion of their partnership, into another bone of Brexit contention.The DUP has painted itself into too much of a corner on Brexit to accept any security basis for the protocol, even in parallel to law-and-order solutions.
A Christmas newspaper article was unlikely to be the place where a returning Taoiseach confronted the moral hazard of the protocol, especially with a new UK-EU deal expected. But Varadkar would be the perfect figure to do so, as the Taoiseach who agreed the protocol and as a lightning rod for unionist objections. He could have almost three years in office after a final UK-EU deal to cut down on the dubious platitudes and give more weight to realistic and evolving security assessments.
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