Lucinda Creighton: Leo Varadkar’s early election plan may turn out to be the right one

The most worrying indicator for the Irish economy since the financial crisis was to be found last week in leaked briefing papers which Department of Finance officials provided to Michael McGrath, the new Minister for Finance.

The papers included warnings that the risks to Ireland’s economic outlook “are firmly tilted to the downside”, and confirmed the expectation that Irish people’s standard of living will drop due to energy costs and other factors.

While it is ...