LEO VARADKAR
PERSONAL: Aged 38 and a qualified medical doctor.
His father, Ashok, is an Indian-born medical doctor and his mother, Miriam, a nurse originally from Co Waterford. His parents met while working in England. He has two sisters – Sophia is a doctor in the neurology department of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London, while Sonia is a nurse at the Coombe in Dublin.
Lived most of his life in the prosperous west Dublin suburb of Castleknock.
Is unmarried and in January 2015 became Ireland’s first openly gay government minister.
EDUCATION: The King’s Hospital, Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin.
POLITICAL: Schoolboy and student Fine Gael activist. Unsuccessfully contested 1999 local elections, elected to Fingal County Council in 2004. TD for Dublin West since 2007. Minister for transport and tourism 2011-2014; health 20142016; Social Protection 2016 to date.
CAREER TRAJECTORY: Has been talked about as a potential Fine Gael leader since his arrival at Leinster House in June 2007.
One of the party’s young Turks, once dubbed “Tory Boy” in his youth – has been busy dumping the right-wing rhetoric and gravitating to the middle.
STRENGTHS: Quickthinking and dynamic. Does a refreshingly candid “honesty-in-dishonesty line” and usually gets away with it. Very hard-working.
WEAKNESSES: More style than substance. For all his talk, was a “manager rather than a doer” as transport, health and finally Social Protection Minister.
LUCKY GENERAL? His two full winters as health minister, 2014/15 and 2015/16, were mild and did not have a full-blown “trolley crisis”. Sided against Enda Kenny in 2010 ‘botched heave’ and still made cabinet in 2011.
UNLUCKY GENERAL? As tourism and transport minister, his two junior ministers were Michael Ring and Alan Kelly, two of the Dáil’s toughest characters.
Had fretful two years in health when he faced high expectations as a doctor.
TO BE EXPECTED: Asa medical student in TCD, social life was all about Young Fine Gael.
A SURPRISE: Has been busy brushing up on his Gaeilge – came to this week’s decisive Fine Gael meeting directly after sitting a civil service Irish exam.
SOUNDBITE WINNER: “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,” his summation as he announced he was gay in January 2015.
BEST HOWLER: “I really can’t wait to get the keys to one of those government jets. My bowels aren’t feeling the Mae West today.” An over-sharing blog, as an opposition TD in 2009, recounting a marathon journey home from Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, involving long waits in Moscow and Heathrow.
UNIQUE SELLING POINT: Can still claim to be “an outsider” carrying a certain air of mystery and intrigue.
POLITICIAN, LIVING OR DEAD, HE MOST ADMIRES: Michael Collins.
STATED HOBBIES: Fitness, good food and wine, and good company.