A police interview, picnics during the Covid crisis and an

Movie channels Music channels Sport channels

Leo Varadkar, 45, became Ireland’s youngest prime minister aged 38 in 2017

Leo Varadkar reflected on his time as Ireland’s prime minister fondly as he announced his resignation today, saying he ‘enjoyed’ being Taoiseach but that it was now time to ‘move on’ – with his shock statement triggering a ‘political earthquake’.

Ireland’s youngest ever prime minister, Varadkar took the reins of government aged 38 in 2017, and once said he would not remain in politics beyond the age of 50 – a comment he later said he regretted.

A doctor by training and of Irish and Indian heritage, the 45-year-old’s rise to the top also made history as he became the first person from an ethnic minority to become Taoiseach.

The first openly gay prime minister, his election was also feted as embodying Ireland’s transition from a conservative Catholic country to an outward-looking socially liberal one, though his own political views are conservative.

Over the past seven years he has served as Taoiseach and Tanaiste – deputy prime minister – in a coalition, but despite his initial popularity, he also courted controversies during a term dominated by Brexit and Covid-19.

He was accused of flouting his own government’s social distancing guidelines during a 2020 park trip, has been forced to apologise for a number of gaffes, and faced police questioning over an alleged confidential document leak in 2021.

Now, his rollercoaster career as leader has come to an abrupt end, with one expert predicting that his legacy ‘will be that of an electoral loser’ who ‘delivered little’, with recent parliamentary defeats and dwindling support among voters.

A visibly emotional Varadkar, who became Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister in 2017, declared that a key part of leadership is knowing when to ‘pass on the baton to someone else – and then having the courage to do it’

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (L) walks with his Irish counterpart Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (C) and his partner Dr. Matthew Barrett during Montreal Pride in 2017

Varadkar speaking to RTE aged 20. He joined the centre right youth wing of the Fine Gael party while studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin

Varadkar in 2017 became the first gay prime minister of the once-staunchly Catholic country and the youngest person to hold the office at age 38

Born in Castleknock in 1979, Varadkar is the son of an Irish nurse and an Indian doctor, the youngest of three with two older sisters.

He always had political ambitions, announcing at the age of seven that he wanted to become the minister for health when he grew up – a dream he later accomplished.

He joined the centre right youth wing of the Fine Gael party while studying medicine at Trinity College Dublin.

In an RTE interview as a 20-year-old student, he made his political ambitions clear again.

He said he had chosen Fine Gael because its values matched his own and due to its pro-European outlook.

Discussing his desire to be health minister, he explained that he wanted to effect change and help more people than doctors are able to on an individual basis.

‘My mum wanted me to be a doctor like my dad, and at seven, I really wanted to be a politician, and I managed in my mind to combine the two,’ he once said in an interview.

A promising student, he was selected for Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP), and spent time working as a political intern in DC.

The shirtless Taoiseach was filmed outdoors with his partner Matt Barrett and two others near Steward’s Lodge where he had been staying during the pandemic

Irish premier Leo Varadkar (second left), his partner Matt Barrett (left) and two friends (right, one standing and one crouching) in Dublin’s Phoenix Park

Later, while speaking to a WIP cohort in 2023 about his time on the programme, he made an embarrassing gaffe – seemingly joking about former President Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

He described his time as an intern at the end of Clinton’s second term, ‘when some parents would have had cause for concern about what would happen to interns in Washington.’

The comment drew some laughs but also shock, and he issued a prompt apology via his spokesperson, who said he ‘was reminiscing about his time in Washington DC as an intern 23 years ago.’

‘He made an ill-judged, off-the-cuff remark which he regrets,’ she said. ‘He apologises for any offense caused to anyone concerned.’

Striving to achieve his political ambitions at home in Ireland, a young Varadkar unsuccessfully contested the 1999 local elections while a second-year medical student.

He eventually got into local politics, being co-opted to Fingal County Council in 2003 and elected as a councillor in 2004.

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are greeted by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, as they arrive for a two-day visit to Dublin, Ireland July 10, 2018

King Charles meeting with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and his partner Dr Matthew Barrett

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (R) gifts a bouquet of Shamrocks to US President Joe Biden during a St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2024

He entered the Dáil, Ireland’s parliament, in 2007, when he was elected as Teachta Dála (TD) for the Dublin West constituency, which he has served ever since.

He went on to serve as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport before being made Minister for Health in 2014.

He was later appointed Minister for Social Protections by then-leader Enda Kenny, using his position to pursue a crackdown on welfare fraud in line with his conservative values.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is kissed by two women during the Dublin LGBTQ Pride Festival (undated)

Then-Minister for Health Leo Varadkar (left) and Minster for Transport, Tourism & Sport Paschal Donohoe

It was during a radio interview in January 2015 that Varadkar came out as gay and said he would be campaigning in support of the same-sex marriage referendum later that year, some 22 years after homosexuality was decriminalised in the Republic.

He has been in a long-term relationship with doctor Matthew Barrett.

While his election as Taoiseach was hailed as highlighting Ireland’s transition from a conservative Catholic country to an outward-looking socially liberal one, Varadkar’s own political views are conservative.

During his stint as social protection minister Varadkar launched a campaign on welfare cheats, he advocates free markets and only made known his pro-choice views on abortion in the run-up to the historic referendum in 2018.

During Varadkar’s time as Taoiseach, Ireland passed the landmark referendum to liberalise its strict abortion laws.

Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar is to stand down from the position, and also relinquish his role as the leader of the governing Fine Gael party

He also played a key role in the Brexit negotiations, with a crunch meeting with then prime minister Boris Johnson at a manor house on The Wirral in England seen as a significant moment in paving a way for the deal on the UK’s exit from the EU.

The agreement staved off the prospect of a hard trade border being introduced on the island of Ireland, but it did prompt years of further political turmoil, particularly within unionism in Northern Ireland, over the creation of a so-called Irish Sea border on the movement of goods between the region and Great Britain.

How Varadkar’s resignation affects Irish politics

What happens now?

Varadkar said his centre-right Fine Gael party will have a leadership contest.

He will remain as premier until the new leader is elected, after parliament returns from recess next month.

Ireland is currently led by a coalition government composed of three parties – Fine Gael, Fianna Fail and the Green Party.

Will there be a general election?

Varadkar’s resignation does not automatically trigger a general election, nor is one likely to be called by Fine Gael.

Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of the Fianna Fail coalition, said he expects the government to run its full term.

The next election must be called by early 2025.

Who could succeed Varadkar?

Contenders to succeed Varadkar as Fine Gael leader include Higher Education Minister Simon Harris, who was health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Enterprise Minister Simon Coveney, a former deputy prime minister.

Public Expenditure Minister Paschal Donohoe and Justice Minister Helen McEntee are also possible candidates.

He was Taoiseach at the onset of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and announced a lockdown, in arguably his most famous address, while on an annual St Patrick’s Day trip to Washington.

But his handling of the health emergency as Taoiseach and later Tanaiste was tainted by decisions he made in his personal life, with many accusing him of flouting his own government’s guidance.

In 2020, the shirtless Taoiseach was filmed outdoors with his partner Matt Barrett and two others near Steward’s Lodge, where he had been staying during the pandemic.

Some viewers suggested that the two-metre (6ft) safety distance was not being observed, but Varadkar’s office insisted he followed lockdown rules.

In 2021, he sparked backlash when he was pictured attending the Mighty Hoopla festival in London on the same weekend that his own government’s Covid 19 restrictions had seen Electric Picnic, Ireland’s biggest music festival, cancelled.

The Irish events and entertainment industry expressed its outrage, while a spokeswoman for Varadkar defending him by saying he was in the UK ‘on private time where such events are allowed’.

He again became embroiled in controversy in 2021, when he was questioned by Gardai over the leak of a confidential government document.

Garda detectives formally questioned him and took his phone during the criminal investigation into the sharing of a draft €210million GP contract in April 2019.

Varadkar apologised for the matter and it was later decided that there were no grounds for charges against him.

In a more recent controversy last year, Sinn Fein’s Pauline Tully accused him of causing ‘deep upset to disabled people, especially those with intellectual disabilities’ after he used the term ‘slow learners’ to describe her party’s policies.

This month, just days before the Care Referendum, he said ‘I don’t actually think that’s the State’s responsibility to be honest,’ when discussing care for older people and other vulnerable groups.

The remarks sparked outrage among disability activists and carers, who took to social media to criticise him.

His Government suffered a major defeat after it lost the twin referenda on family and care, with the care result the greatest loss of a referendum in the history of the state.

Varadkar’s resignation comes after 10 of Fine Gael’s TDs said they would be standing down and not running again in the next election, which is now expected in the coming year.

Ciarán Cannon became the tenth earlier this week, citing ‘toxicity in politics’, but Varadkar made no such suggestion during his statement to the press.

He simply said it was the right time for him to step down and that there was no ‘real reason’ behind his decision, adding that now is as ‘good a time as any’ to step down.

An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar plays pool in ‘The Midland Bar’ while on the campaign trail in Enfield, Co. Meath

The Taoiseach confirmed he will remain in power as the acting leader until his successor is determined

It comes after he was widely blamed for a twin defeat, including the biggest-ever referendum loss by a government, on proposals to reform references to women, the family and care in the Irish constitution.

‘I have nothing else lined up. I have nothing in mind. I have no definite personal or political plans,’ he said, ‘but I’m really looking forward to having the time to think about them.’

He went on to say: ‘On a personal level, I’ve enjoyed being Taoiseach, leader and cabinet member since March 2011.

‘I’ve learned so much about so many things, met so many people who I’d never have got to meet, been to places I’d have never seen both home and abroad and I am deeply grateful for it.

‘And, despite the challenges, would wholeheartedly recommend a career in politics to anyone who’s considering it.

‘However, politicians are human beings and we have our limitations. We give it everything until we can’t anymore and then we have to move on.’

Irish PM Leo Varadkar’s resignation speech IN FULL

‘I have had the privilege to serve for the past 20 years as a public representative, 13 as a member of Cabinet, seven as leader of my Party, and most of those as Taoiseach of this great country. It’s been the most fulfilling time of my life.

‘Working with colleagues, I have had the honour of helping to lead Ireland from unemployment to full employment, from budget deficit to budget surplus, from austerity to prosperity, through a pandemic in which we saved lives and livelihoods, and through Brexit when we prevented a hard border between North and South and protected our place in Europe.

‘I am proud that we have made the country a more equal and more modern place when it comes to the rights of children, the LGBT community, equality for women and their bodily autonomy. More recently, we have led the country through an inflation and cost of living crisis, the worst of which is now thankfully behind us.

‘We have made significant steps towards affordable childcare and universal healthcare, making access to both more affordable for more people.

‘We’ve made work pay better, with the phased implementation of a national Living Wage and statutory sick pay, lower personal taxes and improved family leave, allowing parents to spend more time with their children in those crucial early years.

‘I am happy that during my time as Taoiseach, we were able to honour my commitment to double spending on the arts, culture and sport.

‘This is making a real difference now, and will continue to do so into the future, fostering and assisting the artists and sportsmen and women of the future.

‘We provided leadership by increasing our spending on international development, and we have expanded our diplomatic footprint around the world, building on Ireland’s already considerable soft power. The National Broadband Plan is underway – bringing fibre-based internet connections to every home, school, business, farm and community in Ireland, which the critics said shouldn’t be done.

‘We established the Technological Universities and the Rural Development Fund, and since 2011 we have quadrupled overall annual investment in public infrastructure. This has meant considerably more investment in priorities like new housing, new healthcare facilities, school buildings and climate action.

‘I am proud that we, the Irish people, welcomed over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees to our shores when they needed our protection, notwithstanding the challenges this brings.

‘In my time as Taoiseach, we reduced consistent poverty and income inequality. Housing construction has more than doubled, with five hundred people becoming homeowners every week for the first time – the highest number in almost two decades.

‘Of course, there are other areas in which we have been much less successful and some in which we have gone backwards, but I hope you’ll forgive me if I leave it to others to point them out on a day like this. They will receive plenty of airtime and column space.

‘When I became Party Leader and Taoiseach back in June 2017, I knew that one part of leadership is knowing when the time has come to pass on the baton to someone else. And then having the courage to do it. That time is now.

‘So, I am resigning as President and Leader of Fine Gael effective today, and will resign as Taoiseach as soon as my successor is able to take up that office.

‘I have asked our Party General Secretary and Executive Council to provide for the new Leader to be elected in advance of the Ard Fheis on Saturday, April 6th, thus allowing a new Taoiseach to be elected when the Dáil resumes after the Easter break.

‘I know this will come as a surprise to many and a disappointment to some. I hope you will at least understand my decision. I know that others will, how shall I put it, cope with the news just fine. That is the great thing about living in a democracy.

‘There is never a ‘right time’ to resign high office. However, this is as good a time as any – Budget 2024 is done, and negotiations have not yet commenced on the next one.

‘The institutions of the Good Friday Agreement are working again, and our trading relationship with the United Kingdom, in the post-Brexit era, is settled and stable.

‘The new Taoiseach will have a full two months to prepare for the Local and European Elections, and up to a year before the next General Election.

‘My reasons for stepping down now are personal and political, but mainly political.

‘I believe this Government can be re-elected. I believe my Party, Fine Gael, can gain seats in the next Dáil. Most of all, I believe that would be the right thing for the future of our country, continuing to take us forward. Protecting what we achieved and building on it.

‘After careful consideration and some soul-searching, I believe a new Taoiseach will be better-placed than me to achieve that – to renew and strengthen the top team, to refocus our message and policies, and to drive implementation. After seven years in office, I am no longer the best person for that job.

‘There are loyal colleagues and good friends contesting the Local & European Elections and I want to give them the best chance possible. I think they will now have a better chance under a new Leader.

‘In standing aside, I can do so in the absolute confidence that the country and the economy are in a good place, and that my colleagues in the Government from all three parties, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens, and the Oireachtas will continue to work hard for the nation’s best interests.

‘On a personal level, I have enjoyed being Taoiseach, Leader and a Cabinet member since March 2011. I have learned so much about so many things, met people who I would never have got to meet, been to places I would never have seen, both home and abroad. I am deeply grateful for it and would wholeheartedly recommend a career in politics to anyone considering it.

‘However, politicians are human beings. We have our limitations. We give it everything until we can’t anymore and then we have to move on.

‘I will, of course, continue to fulfil my duties as Taoiseach until a new Taoiseach is elected and will remain as a constituency TD for Dublin West.

‘I know, inevitably, there will be speculation as to the ‘real reason’ for my decision. These are the real reasons. That’s it. I have nothing else lined up or in mind. No definite personal or political plans, but I am looking forward to having the time to think about them.

‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank my Party, my coalition partners Micheál and Eamon, Constituents, colleagues and staff for their loyalty and their phenomenal work, and will also thank them in person in the near future.

‘Most of all, I’d like to finish by thanking the people of Ireland for giving me the opportunity to serve them. I promise I will keep working for Ireland and my community in any way I can in the future.’