ON STARTING A FAMILY

LEO VARADKAR says he and partner Matt Barrett, pictured, are not considering creating a family through surrogacy or any other means ‘for the foreseeable future’.

‘I’ve never considered it so, for the foreseeable future anyway, it’s just the two of us,’ he says, before adding: ‘We’ve had very good life and good relationship and lots of really good friends, so we’re definitely not ready for a family.’

However, Mr Varadkar does have nieces and nephews and says he would enthusiastically encourage them to follow in his footsteps.

‘I would encourage them to go into politics. And you know, I think sometimes in politics, politicians complain about politics a bit too much. You know, every profession is challenging. Medicine was too,’ the qualified doctor adds.

‘We’ve a responsibility, actually, to try and encourage people to get into the profession, [to] get into politics. We need to have good people to choose from when it comes to running for election.

‘It is a tough job, really long hours. I don’t think people think that because the Dáil sits some weeks that it’s not busy. It is unbelievably busy. I work most evenings, I work most weekends and I have done for 20 years now. And, you know, you do get a lot of criticism sometimes a bit of abuse. But the positives outweigh the negatives many times over. It is extraordinarily rewarding.’