So farewell, then, Leo Varadkar. The Taoiseach says he is stepping down because he is no longer ‘the best person for that job’. But the reality is that Varadkar found out the hard way that delegating decisions to voters can come back to bite.

This wasn’t the first time Ireland’s leaders have chosen to hand difficult decisions to voters

Varadkar’s fate was sealed earlier this month when his government suffered a crushing defeat in two referendums. Irish voters were encouraged to back changes to the constitution which would clarify the definition of ‘the Family’ to mean ‘whether founded on marriage or on other durable relationships’ and omit a definition of ‘the institution of Marriage’ as a concept ‘on which the Family is founded’. These were solid, progressive, liberal changes, supported by the partners in the coalition government – Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party – as well as many opposition parties, including Sinn Féin (with some reservations), the Labour party, the Social Democrats and People Before Profit. Then the voters weighed in.

The first proposal was rejected by 68 per cent to 32, and the second by 74 per cent to 26. This was not the narrative the political community had anticipated or wanted, nor was it part of Ireland’s seamless upward trajectory towards an open, progressive, liberal society.

This wasn’t the first time Ireland’s leaders have chosen to hand difficult decisions to voters. The Convention on the Constitution of 2012-14 considered a number of changes to the constitution and led to a referendum in 2015 which legalised same-sex marriage. A citizens’ assembly set up in 2016 paved the way for a plebiscite two years later which legalised abortion. These were huge, existential matters of conscience, the passage of which would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Legislators were glad to pass responsibility elsewhere for making such hard choices.

On those previous occasions, Ireland’s politicians, for the most part, liked what they saw: getting voters to do the dirty work seemed to be a good way of dealing with contentious issues. But this ignored the fact that doing so amounted to a fundamental abdication of responsibility. Ireland is a healthy and thriving democracy, and the electorate votes for the Dáil every five years at most (Seanad Éireann, the other chamber of the Oireachtas, is composed by a rather elaborate set of processes but has little ultimate power). Teachtaí Dála (TDs) are sent to Leinster House to exercise their judgement on matters of public importance. Asking the voters to decide on issues like the rewording of the constitution smacks of a desperation to avoid making decisions.

Varadkar has learned a lesson here: the problem with handing power to others is that they may not exercise it in the way you wanted. A method of rolling out progressive change without having to take any responsibility has suddenly rebounded like a boomerang, and the Irish electorate has said no, in emphatic terms.

Varadkar initially took this on the chin. In the aftermath of the referendum defeat, he admitted: ‘It was our responsibility to convince the majority of people to vote ‘Yes’ and we clearly failed to do so’. His subsequent resignation seems to have been an impulsive response. Micheál Martin, his deputy, minister of foreign affairs and defence, and leader of coalition partner Fianna Fáil since 2011, seemingly had no inkling of what was about to happen.

Many lessons will be drawn from Varadkar’s departure. A telling one might be that power, responsibility and accountability must, in the end, all go hand-in-hand. Politicians may shy away from hard decisions, but consequences will sooner or later be felt. Varadkar is only 45 but his political career is over. Other leaders would do well to learn that delegating decisions is not always a wise idea.