In March, Leo Varadkar shocked the nation as he announced that he was stepping down as Taoiseach and the leader of Fine Gael.
The Taoiseach delivered an emotional statement in a planned press conference at 12 noon on March 20th.
Speaking to the host of the Late Late Show Patrick Kielty, the former taoiseach opened up about this decision.
Explaining the though process behind this huge decision, Leo said: “There are huge numbers of people not just in politics, but in sport and business and life in general who stay on for one season too many and I didn’t want to be that person.”
When asked by Patrick about who the first person he informed was, Leo replied: “My partner Matt obviously because we had been talking about it for a bit of time so he was the first person to know.”
“It’s not a decision you can tell too many people about as you know in politics things can leak very fast.”
When quizzed about the personal toll the role takes, Leo replied: “It can be considerable, I loved the job and being Taoiseach and being able to make decisions that really impacted mostly, not always, but mostly positive on people’s lives.”
“You get to do things you’d never get to do, meet people you would never get to meet and travel to places you’d never get to see.”
However, Leo then spoke more candidly about the difficulty of the role: “At a time when it’s really hard to get people into politics, I don’t want to make a bad impression with new candidates, but it does take over everything.”
“When you’re Taoiseach, you’re always Taoiseach, it is very long hours, it is most evenings, most weekends, you’re always on and you’re always concerned and worried about the problems that the country faces and the people face.”
Read the politician’s statement from his resignation below:
“Thank you for coming. I’d like to read a brief statement.”
“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.”
