The UK’s Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) is reflecting on its stance regarding Leo Varadkar’s divulgence of a confidential document in 2019. Last week, a letter to People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy revealed that SIPO was reassessing the situation, with a commitment to share the outcome with him.
In 2020, Deputy Murphy reported the leak to SIPO, but the commission chose not to initiate a preliminary probe. This decision was subsequently taken to the High Court by Mr Murphy, where it was ruled in June that SIPO’s rationale was “insufficiently justified”.
SIPO could potentially maintain its original decision to forgo a preliminary inquiry but furnish more robust reasoning. Conversely, it could make the opposite decision and initiate an inquiry. It’s uncertain whether a full-scale investigation could conclude prior to the general election. Mr Varadkar made known that he would retire from politics at the conclusion of this Dáil.
Expressing his views, Mr Murphy said, “I believe there should be an investigation and it should occur prior to a general election. The public has the right to know if he committed a wrongdoing, and whether Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Greens were justified in their support.”
A representative of SIPO declined to comment and Mr Varadkar was unreachable for a statement.
Varadkar, who was the Taoiseach at the time, survived a no-confidence vote spurred by the document’s leak, which proposed a new contract with General Practitioners. A Garda investigation ensued, but the Director of Public Prosecutions concluded no charges should be pursued. This put SIPO’s review of the case on a temporary hiatus. Commenting on the High Court verdict, Varadkar said SIPO must decide if a more thorough explanation was required or if the complaint needed to be reassessed entirely.