Leo, at 20, got into politics to ‘change things’
RTÉ footage from 1999 emerged this week showing Taoiseach Leo Varadkar – as a medical student – telling the broadcaster he believed he could help more patients as health minister than as a doctor.
The footage shows a 20-year-old Leo, then a member of Young Fine Gael, loping into Trinity before telling reporter Annette O’Donnell why he wanted to get into politics.
He said: ‘I don’t come from a political family but we always felt that if you wanted to change things, politics was the best way to do that... I want to be a doctor, but doctors can only help a certain number of patients. The minister of health can really change things… If I was ready in 10 years’ time, I’d like to be in Leinster House.’
Mr Varadkar did even better than that, winning a Dáil seat eight years later in 2007. He served as health minister between 2014 and 2016.