Matt Carthy has rejected suggestions he and his Sinn Féin party used the resignation of Leo Varadkar as an opportunity to criticise the leader. The Cavan-Monaghan TD said he and Sinn Féin leader praised the Taoiseach "on a personal level" in the Dáil but, he has an issue with how Fine Gael will now simply have to "anoint" his replacement.
Sinn Féin argue that the leader of the country should be chosen by the electorate and not internally by a political party. Show host Joe Finnegan put it to the TD that there was "an attack of sorts" on Leo Varadkar by his party and that the "timing was terrible". In response, Matt Carthy said any attack was on Fine Gael during their time in government: "there was attack on the legacy of Fine Gael in government," Deputy Carthy told the Joe Finnegan Show, "which, I think is entirely legitimate because I disagree, I do think it matters who's in government and when a a general election will be.
"If you think about the language and the scale being used, it's the exact same as we had five years ago almost, or a little bit more when Fianna Fáil said we're in a confidence and supply agreement, we've agreed to gp the full term but, they didn't and do you know what the reason was?; because there was a motion of no confidence in Simon Harris."
