Varadkar: FG/Labour government should have acted earlier on housing

Mr Varadkar's standing as leader in the party has not been openly challenged in recent months, but there are some rumblings of discontent as Fine Gael's polling remains stagnant, and there is a general sense that after 12 years in Government, the party needs a refresh.

But the Taoiseach insists he is not worried about the slew of retirements from his party and says that fresh blood can come from within.

The Taoiseach is adamant that he will lead the party into the next election, but offers no guarantees that he will lead Fine Gael beyond that.

"I've been elected four times now to the Dáil in Dublin West, and I intend to contest the next election and to lead the party into that election," he said. 

[It's] hard to see much beyond that, but that's absolutely my intention and my commitment now."

Mr Varadkar says that he is looking for his party to consolidate and build on its strong 2019 local and European election result when the party gained seats, something the Taoiseach says is "unusual" for a Government party. He says that Fine Gael has 15 areas in which it does not have a councillor, and these will be targeted for wins.

TD retirements

With the announcements that four sitting TDs will not be running in the next election — Kerry TD Brendan Griffin, Donegal TD Joe McHugh, as well as John Paul Phelan and Michael Creed — several key allies of Mr Varadkar have indicated that they will not contest the next election.

On top of that, there are questions about some of the party's longest-serving TDs. While Charlie Flanagan and Fergus O'Dowd insist they will run, others have been less definitive. But the Taoiseach says that this does not leave him feeling in any way isolated in his position.

"Not in the slightest," he said. 

"I have a very, very strong team around me of ministers and ministers of state, and beyond that, of course, a parliamentary party made up of TDs and senators. 

"There are a number of people retiring, that's not all that unusual between elections. It was the case in the last election as well. 

"What is a bit different about Fine Gael in comparison to other parties is we do for a lot of people who have, you know, 25 years' service or more, most TDs only get elected once or twice ... we have a very high number of TDs who have 25 years service or more.

"They've been in Government, they've been an Opposition. They've made huge contributions to their party, their community and their constituency. 

And some of them want to either retire or move on to other things. And that's understandable."

Mr Varadkar said that these retirements create an opportunity for anyone who is ambitious, be they a sitting councillor or not currently in politics.

"For every retirement, there is an opportunity for someone," he says.

'A very deep housing crisis' 

The Dublin West TD says that his party will go to the public seeking re-election, but accepts that much of their success in this will depend on the Government's record on housing. 

Despite the party being in power for 12 years and with his former Tánaiste Simon Coveney's 2017 pledge to end the use of hotel emergency accommodation looking less and less tethered to reality, the Taoiseach says that his party is "not finished yet" with the issue.

"We have another two years to go," he said. 

I acknowledge that we are in the midst of a very deep housing crisis, which affects people in all sorts of different ways. 

"Whether it's the high rents, whether it's homelessness, whether it's people who can't afford to buy their first home — and that's causing an intergenerational divide in our society, which is a very serious thing. What I will always prioritise is homeownership, and I think we're seeing results there."

The Housing For All plan is working, he stresses, but points to the uncertain state of the country's economy in 2011 when he and Fine Gael first came to government. In that respect, did that government miss a trick by not investing in housing?

"I think if we did miss a trick, it wasn't in the last government, it was in the first government which I served, and I accept collective responsibility for it," he said. 

"And in that first government, we didn't, nor did anyone else, anticipate how quickly the population would rise and how quickly the economy will recover and how soon we find ourselves with resources again.

"I saw a video from 2008 where the CS0 was projecting that by 2041 the population of Ireland might hit 4.8m, and it's 2023 and guess what? It's already 5.1m.

"Had we known that, perhaps he would have made some of the decisions that we made two or three years earlier."