High Court Sipo decision is a bad outcome for Leo Varadkar

A High Court ruling could lead to the State’s ethics watchdog looking again at Leo Varadkar’s leak of a draft medical contract during his first term as taoiseach. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

This is a bad outcome for Varadkar, who faces yet more scrutiny of questionable actions when he first led the Government. But with his career past its heyday after his abrupt resignation as taoiseach, the court’s ruling on Friday will have little impact on the former Fine Gael leader as he mulls his future from the backbenches.

In private statements two years ago questioning how Varadkar defended the leak, Comptroller and Auditor General Seamus McCarthy and Ombudsman Ger Deering dissented from the Sipo’s decision to refuse a preliminary inquiry into the affair. They were outvoted by three other Sipo commissioners: the chairman Garrett Sheehan, a retired Court of Appeal judge; Peter Finnegan, clerk of the Dáil; and Martin Groves, clerk of the Seanad.

“Would our arguments be enough to satisfy a judge in a judicial review proceeding ?” McCarthy asked as Sipo considered its stance.

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