ON GIVING SHELTER TO A REFUGEE FROM UKRAINE

THE incoming Taoiseach spoke about how he and partner Matt Barrett’s home life has changed since they took in a young woman fleeing the war in Ukraine earlier this year.

‘She’s living with us now since May, so it’s actually going very well. We have a spare room, which has a bathroom beside it.

‘And we’re both busy people, we’re not home very much. She’s 28. She’s a musician and she is studying and she’s now working as well, which is great.

‘She has pretty good English so, you know, for us it’s been a very good experience. And it’s been nice to be able to do so, and to give something back, because I think when you have a lot. you should try and give something back,’ Mr Varadkar says.

‘You know, the two of us were watching the war in Ukraine in the early days, we just thought this was awful, and wanted to help in a meaningful way. And that’s how we invited her into our home and, look, she’s going to be with us until she can find somewhere of her own and everyone knows how hard that is in Dublin at the moment.

‘But we’ll help her out as best we can – it’s been a good experience. I appreciate for other people it’s trickier, if you’ve got kids in the house it might be different, or if the person coming to live in your home doesn’t speak English. I think that would be different. We were quite lucky that we [got someone] who is a very good match for us.’