Further ministerial offices

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment
In office 27 June 2020 – 17 December 2022
Taoiseach	Micheál Martin
Preceded by	Heather Humphreys
Succeeded by	Simon Coveney
Minister for Defence
In office 14 June 2017 – 27 June 2020
Taoiseach	Himself
Preceded by	Enda Kenny
Succeeded by	Simon Coveney
Minister for Social Protection
In office 6 May 2016 – 14 June 2017
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	Joan Burton
Succeeded by	Regina Doherty
Minister for Health
In office 11 July 2014 – 6 May 2016
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	James Reilly
Succeeded by	Simon Harris
Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport
In office 9 March 2011 – 11 July 2014
Taoiseach	Enda Kenny
Preceded by	Pat Carey
Succeeded by	Paschal Donohoe

Teachta Dála

Incumbent

Assumed office
May 2007

Constituency

Dublin West

Personal details

Born

18 January 1979 (age 45)
Dublin, Ireland

Political party

Fine Gael

Domestic partner

Matthew Barrett

Education

The King's Hospital

Alma mater

Trinity College Dublin

Leo Eric Varadkar ( born 18 January 1979) is an Irish Fine Gael politician who served as Taoiseach from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024, as Tánaiste from 2020 to 2022, and as leader of Fine Gael from 2017 to 2024.

Early life
Political career
Political views and profile
Personal life
Images for kids
See also

Early life

Born on 18 January 1979, in the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin, Varadkar is the third child and only son of Ashok and Miriam (née Howell) Varadkar. His father was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and moved to the United Kingdom in the 1960s, to work as a doctor. His mother, born in Dungarvan, County Waterford, met her future husband while working as a nurse in Slough. Early in 1971, they married in the UK. Sophia, the elder of his two sisters, was born while the family lived in Leicester. They moved to India, before settling in Dublin in 1973, where his other sister, Sonia, was born.

Varadkar was educated at the St Francis Xavier national school in Blanchardstown and then The King's Hospital, a Church of Ireland secondary school in Palmerstown. At the age of 16, he joined Young Fine Gael. He was admitted to Trinity College Dublin (TCD), where he briefly studied law before switching to its School of Medicine. At TCD, he was active in the university's Young Fine Gael branch and served as Vice-President of the Youth of the European People's Party, the youth wing of the European People's Party, of which Fine Gael is a member. Varadkar was selected for the Washington Ireland Program for Service and Leadership (WIP), a half-year personal and professional development program in Washington, D.C., for students from Ireland. While there, he interned for the US House of Representatives.

Varadkar graduated in 2003, after completing his internship at KEM Hospital in Mumbai. He then spent several years working as a non-consultant hospital doctor in St. James's Hospital and Connolly Hospital, before specialising as a general practitioner in 2010.

Political career

In 2004, Varadkar joined Fine Gael, became a member of Fingal County Council, and later served as Deputy Mayor of Fingal. He was elected to Dáil Éireann for the first time at the 2007 general election.

In May 2017, following Kenny's resignation as Fine Gael leader, Varadkar contested a leadership election against Simon Coveney. Although more party members voted for Coveney, Varadkar won by a significant margin among Fine Gael members of the Oireachtas and was elected party leader and subsequently appointed Taoiseach; at age 38, he became the youngest person to hold the office. He is Ireland's first, and the world's fifth, openly gay head of government and the first Taoiseach from an ethnic minority group in Ireland.

Varadkar called a general election in February 2020, in which Fine Gael won 35 seats, a loss of 15 seats since the previous general election. As part of an agreement to form a three-party coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, Varadkar and Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin agreed to rotate the positions of Taoiseach and Tánaiste. Varadkar served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to December 2022, when he again became Taoiseach.

On 13 April 2023, Varadkar met with U.S. President Joe Biden at Farmleigh House during his four-day visit to the island of Ireland.

On 6 May 2023, Varadkar, along with President Michael D. Higgins, attended the Coronation of Charles III and Camilla, marking the first time a serving taoiseach attended the coronation of a British monarch.

In March 2024, two referendums were held on proposed amendments to the Constitution of Ireland. The Thirty-ninth Amendment of the Constitution (The Family) Bill 2023 proposed to revise the definition of family to include durable relationships outside marriage. The Fortieth Amendment of the Constitution (Care) Bill 2023 proposed to remove references to a woman's "life within the home" and "duties in the home" and add a new article on care within the family. Voters overwhelmingly rejected both proposed amendments, delivering a rebuke to a government and in the eyes of many, personally to Varadkar.

On 20 March 2024, Varadkar announced his intention to step down as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader. He said his "reasons for stepping down are both personal and political". The 2024 Fine Gael leadership election saw Simon Harris elected unopposed on 24 March 2024. On 8 April 2024, Varadkar handed in his resignation as Taoiseach.

Political views and profile

Varadkar with U.S. President Joe Biden on St Patrick's Day in 2023

In 2011, Varadkar cited Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary as the Irish person he most admired due to his forthrightness, and Otto von Bismarck as a historic figure he admired, crediting Bismarck as a conservative who was able to enact social reforms.

Economy

Varadkar is a proponent of tax cuts and welfare reform, and supports investment in Ireland by multinational corporations such as Apple Inc, alongside keeping Ireland's corporate tax rate low. During his time as Minister for Social Protection in 2016 and 2017, Varadkar launched the "Welfare Cheats Cheat Us All" campaign, aimed at those committing welfare fraud.

Foreign policy

Varadkar alongside Jüri Ratas, the Prime Minister of Estonia, and Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, in 2017

Varadkar, alongside his party Fine Gael, universally opposed Brexit, and much of his time during his first tenure as Taoiseach was spent in negotiations with the British government over how the shared border between the United Kingdom and Ireland would operate.

Varadkar is a supporter of CETA, a proposed free trade agreement between Canada and the European Union.

Immigration

In 2010, Varadkar was an advocate of a scheme in which immigrants to Ireland would be paid to return to their country of origin. Varadkar suggested that at the time of the Nice Treaty referendums in Ireland in the early 2000s, the public were told there would not be large-scale immigration to Ireland in the aftermath, but this was not the case, before further suggesting that Ireland had not been suitably prepared for the amount of immigration it experienced during the Celtic Tiger period.

In a 2022 interview, Varadkar was critical of British politician Priti Patel in her role as Home Secretary, stating that her plan to "send asylum seekers to Rwanda is disgusting". In the same interview, Varadkar stated "I have always been supportive of migration" and "supportive of accepting refugees from war-torn countries", although he said he made the distinction between "people who come here legally and contribute to our society, and those who come here illegally and seek to gain status through subterfuge or falsehood". In June 2022, Varadkar began hosting a Ukrainian refugee in his home.

In January 2023, Varadkar announced that his government would be looking at ways to strengthen border control against illegal immigration.

Personal life

Varadkar is the first Irish government leader of partly Indian origin and has visited India on a number of occasions. He completed his medical internship at KEM Hospital in his father's childhood city of Mumbai.

Varadkar was a prominent advocate of the same-sex marriage referendum. His partner, Matthew Barrett, is a doctor at Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.

In 2017, Varadkar completed a course in professional Irish, and devised an Irish language form for his surname, de Varad. He has said, "My philosophy towards Irish is just to speak it! Speak Irish! It's not about getting it perfect – it's about having fun and making an effort to speak it."

Images for kids

Health Minister Varadkar with Tánaiste Joan Burton at the opening of a unit at Connolly Hospital, Blanchardstown, July 2014
Varadkar and US President Donald Trump in Shannon, Ireland in June 2019
Varadkar beside his coalition partners Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan in December 2022

Leo Varadkar facts for kids

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