LEO Varadkar revealed that his partner Matt Barrett was the first person he told about his plan to quit as Taoiseach – and also admitted he almost “chickened” out the night before.
The former Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader appeared on tonight’s Late Late Show and got candid about his shock decision to resign last month.
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He told host Patrick Kielty: “I nearly chickened out the night before.”
Coming to the conclusion that he was no longer the right person for the job, the first person he told about the decision was his partner Matt.
He revealed: “We [he and Matt] had been talking about it, he was the first person. It’s not a decision you can tell too many people.”
“You either die, lose or resign, the question is whether it’s voluntary or involuntary.
“I wanted it to be on my own terms.”
Varadkar and his partner had been discussing the decision for a while before it was made known to the nation and his fellow party members.
He revealed it was only the night before that he broke the news to Michael Martin and Eamonn Ryan, with the Fine Gael party discovering moments before the nation.
Mr Varadkar shared that he had realised that there was a “need for reset” in Fine Gael, but the decision to step down was a hard one.
He said: “It took a bit of time to come to that conclusion, a part of leadership is knowing when it’s time to go.”
Mr Varadkar received a lot of criticism from the Irish people during his time as Taoiseach, particularly on social media.
When asked about how that affected him personally, Leo compared it to being a frog in boiling water.
Explaining how social media was coming to be in 2011 when he first became a TD, it was similar to the temperature in the pot gradually increase and the frog doesn’t notice.
He said: “Sorry we haven’t been able to do more for you in the last 13 years.”
With the rise far-right politics and rhetoric emerging across the country, Leo shared his concerns for people of colour and immigrants trying to make life in Ireland.
‘Knew I was different’
He told Patrick: “When I was a kid, I was the only guy who was slightly darker and had a funny name but I always knew I was different from day one.”
Varadkar’s father was the local GP in Blanchardstown as he grew up and while he was a child of an immigrant, he often didn’t feel it due to his family being so immersed in the community.
He also recalled a story about a friend of his who is married and has a family of her own with a black man.
He shared that it is only now that her mixed race children are being targeted with racism, with Leo resonating as he grew up in the same position – despite being born and raised in Ireland.
Leo said: “People who are anti-migration need to keep that in mind.
‘No justification’
“There’s no justification for that in a democratic country.”
Leo said when he stood down from office that there were offers coming in for new opportunities, one being a potential book deal to reflect on his life in politics over the last number of years.
And as for becoming a roadie for Kylie Minogue as she headlines Electric Picnic, he was clear: “I should be so lucky”.
Asked whether he thinks he was a good taoiseach, Mr Varadkar said that will be for others to judge in the fullness of time.
“It’s too soon I think to make those kind of conclusions. You have to see what comes what comes next over the next three, four or five, six years to know for sure,” he said.
Regrets
Asked what he regretted, Mr Varadkar said he felt the government had been too cautious in 2011 following the financial crash.
He said: “The economy bounced back way quicker than we thought … and we held back on some spending decisions, and we held back on some investment decisions.
“A lot of the new houses you see being built now, or some of the new transport improvements that are about to come online, could have happened five years ago had we known what we know now/
“The progress that we’re now seeing could have been much further along and then you would see a better situation with housing, a better situation with health. But that’s hindsight and hindsight is 20/20.”
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