The highs and lows
AT JUST 45, Leo Varadkar has achieved a lot in politics – but it is only in the fullness of time that he can be judged by the weight of history. For now, here are some of his best and worst moments.
THE HIGHS
1. COMING OUT
In 2015, during the run-up to the same-sex marriage referendum, Leo Varadkar came out as a gay man.
He was Minister for Health at the time and it was the first time he spoke publicly about his sexuality. However, he said it wasn’t something that he was keeping a secret.
Mr Varadkar said he came out for ‘personal reasons’ and was comfortable talking about it, but he said he ‘wasn’t always’.
He said: ‘It’s not something that defines me. I’m not a half Indian politician, or a doctor politician, or a gay politician, for that matter. It’s just part of who I am. It doesn’t define me. It is part of my character.’
2. HISTORY-MAKING TAOISEACH
When he acceded to high office in 2017 he became a trailblazing Taoiseach as he was the first gay, half-Indian and youngest leader of the country.
His father Ashok is from Mumbai, India, and his mother Miriam is from Waterford.
‘I know when my father travelled 5,000 miles to build a new home in Ireland, I doubt that he ever dreamed that one day his son would grow up to be its leader,’ Mr Varadkar said in his acceptance speech in 2017.
3. BREXIT
He successfully negotiated Northern Ireland’s place in the single market despite Britain’s departure from the European Union.
He avoided a hard border on the island of Ireland, and secured unanimous EU support for Ireland’s position to not have our single market access impacted by Brexit.
4. THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Recent OECD research shows Ireland avoided excess deaths during the pandemic.
Varadkar was caretaker Taoiseach in the first four months of the pandemic while the programme for government was being hammered out.
He was at the forefront of decision-making around public health restrictions throughout the two-year pandemic.
While he said he stood by the decision to introduce the first strict lockdown and pointed out that Ireland had one of the lowest death rates in Europe, he said that he was ‘not convinced’ of the benefits of the last lockdown.
He had a public row with Dr Tony Holohan, who was thenchief medical officer, when he said that members of the National Public Health Emergency Team had usurped the role of Government.
He later said he went ‘too far’ in his remarks at the time.
5. GAY MARRIAGE AND ABORTION REFERENDUMS
Mr Varadkar was a senior minister during the same-sex marriage referendum in 2015 and came out during the campaign.
‘It was not just a referendum, it was more like a social revolution,’ he said following the result.
And he was Taoiseach in 2018 when the country voted by by a 67% majority to repeal the 8th amendment to the constitution and legalise abortion which he campaigned for.
THE LOWS
1. WELFARE CHEATS CHEAT US ALL
One phrase that has haunted Leo Varakdar is ‘welfare cheats cheat us all’ – the slogan around an infamous campaign which he fronted in 2017 when he was Minister for Social Protection.
And during his campaign to become leader of Fine Gael he said he wanted to be the Taoiseach ‘for people who get up early in the morning’ which was seized on by his political opponents, with Fianna Fáil Micheál Martin saying it was ‘right wing elitist’.
2. REFERENDUM DEFEATS
The Government received two wallops in the recent referendums on care and marriage. As the leader of a government accused of a lacklustre campaign Mr Varadkar said he took responsibility for the loss.
3. HOMELESSNESS AND HOUSING
While Fine Gael often point to the turnaround in unemployment figures since they assumed office in 2011, the number of people who are homeless has been going in a different direction. The number of people in emergency accommodation reached a record 13,531 last month with 4,000 of those children.
4. WASHINGTON GAFFES
Mr Varadkar has been prone to making some embarrasssing statements.
At an event in the US he spoke of his experience as an intern in the American capital during the presidency of Bill Clinton when Monica Lewinsky was his intern. He jokingly remarked that he was interning at a time ‘when some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington’. He later apologised for his comment.
5. GP CONTRACT
A criminal investigation began after Mr Varadkar confirmed he had in 2019 leaked a copy of the proposed GP contract agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation to his then-friend, Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, who was president of the rival, and now defunct, National Association of General Practitioners.