TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has distanced himself from the comments of his former party leader in relation to rural and urban Ireland.

Asked about Leo Varadkar’s remarks about urban Ireland “paying all the bills” while rural Ireland is “in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits”, the Tánaiste said he does not believe in “dividing people”. 

The Tánaiste said he prefers to “consider people in the round in terms of their values and policy propositions” rather than dividing them based on “where they live or what job they do”.

“We want to create a country in which everybody who works hard can get ahead and not just get by. Those people exist in rural Ireland. They exist in urban Ireland. Those people are farmers. Those people are non-farmers.

“And I would rather see our country pulled together at this time of challenge,” the Tánaiste said today.

He was speaking at the sod turning of a new housing development in Drogheda, Co Meath.

Harris and Varadkar after the changeover of Fine Gael leadership in 2024. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Harris added that people are “absolutely entitled to their views” but that he finds “hard-working people” in all parts of Ireland. 

“We have a great country. Most people keep to the social code, keep to the social contract, and they want to see it deliver for them. They want to know government has their back, is doing its best, is being honest with them. I think it’s time to pull together as a country,” the Tánaiste said.

Leo’s comments 

Speaking on Matt Cooper’s Path to Power podcast over the weekend, former taoiseach Leo Varadkar did not hold back in his assessment of the rural/urban divide. 

Varadkar said there’s a perception in rural Ireland that people living there are the “real workers” who are “paying all the bills” – but it is urban Ireland who do so.

“People in rural Ireland are very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that ‘we’re the real workers, we’re the ones paying all the bills, we’re the ones feeding the country’,” he said.

“I think we maybe need to be a little bit more blunt in urban Ireland and say actually, that’s not the case. We’re the ones paying all the bills and you’re the ones in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don’t get.

“Maybe we need to sit around the table and have an honest discussion about that kind of stuff.”

He made the remarks during a discussion on whether the agricultural sector in Ireland is perhaps getting a “disproportionate influence over political decisions”.