Leo makes a meal of his night with Kylie by arguing about a non-existent dinner
HE should be so lucky... a Kylie Minogue concert after a ‘free meal’?
However, it was more a case of better the devil you know for Leo Varadkar as he insisted he only had drinks, paid for out of his own pocket.
The Taoiseach attended the Australian superstar’s sold-out show at the 3Arena along with his partner, Dr Matthew Barrett, and a group of friends on Monday.
They were pictured backstage enjoying Kylie’s company in posts that were widely shared on social media.
However, yesterday a post on Facebook alleged that Mr Varadkar and his group had their meal and drinks paid for by 3Arena bosses, and failed to tip his server. The post was shared over 3,500 times.
Taking to Twitter, Mr Varadkar insisted there had been no meal, only drinks, which bought himself. His tweet did not reference the server.
‘I’ve been made aware of a post on social media saying I had a free meal at a concert the other night. This is not true. There was no meal, we only had drinks and I paid. I have the receipt to prove it too,’ he wrote.
The incident left some social media users ‘spinning around’, questioning why the Taoiseach had chosen to draw attention to the story in the first place.
Earlier yesterday, Facebook user Pol Ó Muireadhaigh posted a message to the site that he said he hoped would ‘go viral’. He wrote: ‘The Taoiseach... was brought to the VIP area with his partner, 2 undercover gardaí and 4 other persons. This party of 8 had a meal and drinks.
‘When it was time to pay, Leo Varadkar pulled out a card but was told by the manager that the entire bill was complimentary and taken care of by the 3Arena.’
Some TDs saw the funny side, with Fianna Fáil’s Thomas Byrne tweeting ‘Justice for the Castleknock one!’
Yesterday, Mr Varadkar launched a new book on Irish Sunday newspapers. And he revealed that former taoiseach Bertie Ahern once advised him: ‘Don’t read the Sunday newspapers! It is advice that is easier to give than to take.’
He congratulated Joe Breen and Mark O’Brien, the editors The Sunday Papers – A History Of Ireland’s Weekly Press.
‘Justice for the Castleknock one!’