Leo's fast track

FRIDAY INTERVIEW: Leo Varadkar,  Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport

STANDING INSIDE the doorway of his office on Kildare Street, a large takeaway coffee in hand, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport Leo Varadkar apologises for keeping me waiting. He was held up on his way back from a tourism launch in Heuston Station by a protest outside the Dáil by the Irish Farmers Association. Traffic was gridlocked.

“Like all good transport ministers, I decided to get out and walk,” he says with a broad smile. He’s also been known to get the Swords Express to work in the morning. No merc perk for Leo.

Varadkar is a man in a hurry. His brief is vast, covering public transport, road safety, tourism, aviation policy, sport and much more besides.

“It’s a big portfolio,” he admits. “But I’m enjoying it.”

Later, he concedes that his first choice of ministry would have been communications, which he tracked in opposition. “It’s just that you know all the people [in the area] and you could hit the ground running,” he explains. “But it doesn’t work like that . . . I was delighted to be appointed to this.”

In his short time as a Minister, Varadkar has been busy. He has offered to axe the air travel tax, introduced a visa waiver programme for certain short-stay tourists, reduced subsidies to regional airports and decided to amalgamate Dundalk Port with its big brother in Dublin.

He’s also played a role in the State visit of Queen Elizabeth II and the visit of US president Barack Obama, and helped to deliver cuts in VAT and PRSI for the hospitality sector.

And he was in Cardiff last week in an official capacity to see Leinster stage an amazing comeback to win the Heineken Cup final.

“I went to the bathroom at half-time and by the time I got back they’d already scored a try. It was great. The only problem now is that I can’t wear a jersey, I have to wear a suit.”

He talks of the Blue Trinity – Leinster, the Dubs (GAA teams) and Fine Gael. Appropriately enough, he was wearing a blue striped shirt and a blue tie when we met. And, contrary to what some might think (Vincent Browne in particular), Varadkar is a sports fan. “I played rugby and cricket, although I didn’t like cricket. But my Indian father wanted me to play it. I also do a lot of running and keep fit.”

Transport is the meat and drink of his brief and there is much to do in this area. Like prioritising public transport investment. Varadkar has signalled that only one of the big ticket projects from Metro North, Dart Underground and the link up of the Luas lines is feasible given there is very little money in the kitty.

“Actually, there are 10 options that the NTA is considering,” Varadkar reveals. These include a rail spur to Dublin airport and rapid transit bus services in Dublin and provincial cities.

He says Metro North would require an upfront payment of about €750 million from the State and around another €4 billion from the private sector, repaid by the exchequer over 30 years. But public private partnerships (PPPs) are almost impossible for the State to secure with lenders at present given the parlous state of our public finances.

“If PPPs aren’t happening, that rules out Metro North and the Dart underground,” he says matter-of-factly. He will decide which projects can proceed as soon as he knows what funding is available to him. When will that be? “By mid-June I think.”

Varadkar plays a straight bat on the various issues facing him. There’s no waffle and no false promises. It’s all about making the most from the reduced resources now available.

“The money just isn’t there so we have to prioritise our spending.”

He is determined that our road network is not neglected under his watch. “We have to maintain our roads. That’s essential.”

A major priority is boosting our tourist numbers. There was good news on that front this week with visitor numbers rising by 8.6 per cent in the first three months of this year.

The planned cuts in VAT and employee PRSI should help the hospitality sector. But what are the chances that companies might simply pocket the savings for themselves?

“That could happen,” he accepts, adding that his department won’t be going around the country checking prices to verify that the reductions have been passed on.

He’s also offered to axe the €3 air travel tax if airlines add new routes and services from Ireland.

So far, it’s received a lukewarm response.

Aer Lingus isn’t keen to launch new routes in the current economic climate, while Ryanair wants more concessions, namely cheaper airport passenger charges and the break-up of the Dublin Airport Authority, which operates Dublin, Cork and Shannon airports.

Varadkar says that’s “not realistic” and, while there might be some creative solutions to the passengers charges issue, he won’t take any action that would impair the DAA’s ability to service its €1 billion borrowings.

“I’m not going to do anything that will prevent the DAA from being able to service its debt.”

He says Ryanair wants no passenger charges for additional traffic that it brings here.

Earlier this month, DAA chairman David Dilger resigned in a surprise move. Tensions were said to exist with Varadkar over Government meddling on passengers charges.

When asked if this was true, Varadkar lays his chin on his left hand, puffs out his cheeks and replies: “Actually, I was talking to him by phone this morning. We’ve agreed we’re not going to make an issue of this in the media. There’s no bad blood between us.”

He hopes to appoint Dilger’s successor in the “next week or two”. An approach to a serving board member to take on the role on an interim basis has been turned down.

The DAA’s debt is a legacy of a new Terminal 2 in Dublin and a new terminal in Cork.

“They’re fine buildings, it’s just a shame they cost so much.” Interestingly, he refers to T2 as the “Taj Mahal” – a term also used by Michael O’Leary – and to Cork’s new building as the “Micheál Martin terminal”, a reference to the current Fianna Fáil leader’s influence in delivering for his native Cork during the last administration.

Opening new routes is key to Varadkar’s plans to boost visitor numbers here. He’d like to see a route re-open to the west coast of the United States, possibly by Aer Lingus.

“They’re looking at it. They’ve told me that there’s just 90 people a day go from Ireland to the west coast and that’s not enough for them. But it would be great to have a connection with the west coast again.”

He said the Government’s 25 per cent stake in Aer Lingus remains strategic in terms of preventing the airline from falling into the wrong hands, and also for the London Heathrow slots. Does he take the same view as his predecessor, Noel Dempsey, on a Ryanair takeover not being in the public interest.

“I’m not in favour of that,” he says, citing their near 80 per cent hold on air traffic at Dublin airport.

The other big transport beast in Varadkar’s garage is CIÉ. Varadkar is a strong advocate for public transport, but budget constraints mean he will have to reduce the subsidy to CIÉ by about €30 million per annum for each of the next three years. It’s slated to get about €260 million this year.

“Subsidising public transport is essential. It’s a matter of trying to minimise the impact on services. We don’t want to take away people’s bus services.”

But there will have to be adjustments, he concedes. He describes CIÉ as already “fairly efficient” in terms of its operations and says it will have to balance changes to services with fare increases that won’t dampen customer further. Clearly, this won’t be easy.

Varadkar is also modifying the governance structure at CIÉ. For the last number of years, executive chairman John Lynch has steered the transport company. Varadkar has decided to change things and will appoint four non-executive chairmen to run CIÉ and its three subsidiaries – Iarnród Éireann, Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann. He expects to announce the appointments next week.

“It’s been a lot harder than I thought to find the right people,” he says.

A recent advertisement seeking applications for board members at CIÉ yielded 250 responses. “This ranged from some very qualified people to the man who takes the bus every day,” he says with a chuckle.

With Ireland basking in a positive glow from the visits of the Queen and President Obama, will it actually have any impact on visitor numbers?

“We’ll see. I don’t know of any research that exists to measure that. Look, we’ve thrown everything at it . . . a huge effort was put in.”

So what does Varadkar hope to achieve from his time in office? “If we could get visitor numbers up to 7 to 7.5 million I’d be fairly happy ,” he says. “Over a two to three-year period.

“Transport will be tougher. We’ve got to deliver savings without having too big an impact on services. And we have to maintain our roads. On sports, I’d like to put together a new sports capital programme . . . a small one. We haven’t had one for a couple of years.”

He thinks it will be possible to complete some projects at the national sports campus in Abottstown at “no cost to the exchequer”.

“Some of the sports bodies have money,” he says. “If we could do all that I’d be fairly happy.”

ON THE RECORD

Name: Leo Varadkar

Age:32

Job:Minister for Tourism, Transport and Sport. Also TD for Dublin West

Lives:Carpenterstown Road, Dublin 15

Hobbies:Likes running and keeping fit. Supports Leinster rugby team and Dublin GAA

Something you might expect:He likes sport

Something that might surprise:He received the highest vote ever in local elections in Ireland in 2004 and is the youngest member of Cabinet