A DIVIDE has emerged among ministers in response to President Higgins' tribute to the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, whose death was announced on Saturday.
Social Protection minister Leo Varadkar says he would have issued a more "nuanced" statement than the President, but junior minister John Halligan says claims that Higgins glossed over human rights abuse in Cuba are unfair.
The president was criticised forhis statement, issued on Saturday morning, which discussed Cuba's social successes at some length - such as high rates of literacy and healthcare access - while making only passing reference to the infringements of civil rights.
He also referred to Castro as "a giant among world leaders".
Áras an Úachtaráin said criticism of the statement, for ignoring human rights issues, was "unsustainable and unfounded" - and the President today signed a book of condolence "on behalf of the people of Ireland".
The handwritten note signed by President Higgins on behalf of Irish people pic.twitter.com/IWSFSy9Y5s
— harrymcgee (@harrymcgee) November 28, 2016
Social Protection minister Leo Varadkar said he would take a more nuanced view on the legacy of Castro, but said he did not want to get into a commentary on the role of a President who was above politics.
Minister Varadkar says he does have issues with human rights abuses:
Junior minister John Halligan, however, was keen to leap to the defence of President Higgins - and said claims that Higgins had ignored the civil rights infringements of Castro's regime were unfounded.
The Waterford TD recently accompanied the president on visits to Vietnam and Laos, where he openly challenged the ruling regimes on their human rights records.
He says people should not accuse the president of ignoring the harsher realities of regimes like Cuba's:
However another independent TD Mattie McGrath said the president's moral authority now lay "in tatters".
He said the President had a duty to reflect the views of the Irish nation, and could not use the statement to channel his own admiration for Castro's controversial regime.
