Leo Varadkar Quotes

Mum is from West Waterford, Dungarvan. She's a farmer's daughter. She's a nurse. She left home very young - I think she was 18 - and went off to train as a nurse in England. My dad is from India, just south of Mumbai. He was one of the first in his family to go to college, and he went to England in the '70s; he emigrated there.

- Leo Varadkar

It was easy for some to jump on the Brexit result and use it to make a land-grab for Northern Ireland, and it was counterproductive.

- Leo Varadkar

Politicians should not get involved in the detail of clinical criteria and shouldn't be arguing with professors and consultants over whether there is one standard deviation or two standard deviations.

- Leo Varadkar

The gutter is Bertie Ahern's natural habitat.

- Leo Varadkar

Economic gains on their own, without a vision for society to accompany them, will result in a squandered prosperity that will ultimately be unsustainable.

- Leo Varadkar

I'd never be overly confident about anything.

- Leo Varadkar

Unless people who voted for unionist parties are suddenly going to vote for a united Ireland, which I don't believe will happen, a border poll will be defeated.

- Leo Varadkar

I hope the unionist parties, for example, who would be keen to protect and preserve the Union would see that it's much easier to do that if the U.K. stays within the Customs Union and the Single Market, because that would take away the need for any special arrangement, or bespoke solution, for Northern Ireland.

- Leo Varadkar

We would only need a bespoke solution for Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the Single Market.

- Leo Varadkar

We really need to come behind and press for marriage equality in Northern Ireland.

- Leo Varadkar

I think Sinn Fein remains the greatest threat to our democracy and our prosperity as a state.

- Leo Varadkar

Part of my mission, if I have that opportunity as leader, is to take Sinn Fein on.

- Leo Varadkar

I won't be allowing my own background or my own sexual orientation to dictate the decisions that I make.

- Leo Varadkar

Often, the people who speak loudest about republican values are the least when it comes to honouring them.

- Leo Varadkar

The idea that you could send agricultural products to Tokyo and Osaka and not pay tariffs, and you would have to pay tariffs sending them to Manchester, is quite hard to fathom in the modern world.

- Leo Varadkar

I miss being able to have a drink in my local pub, which I can't do anymore, or being able to go to the shops without every second person staring at me and looking at my basket to see what I'm buying.

- Leo Varadkar

We have an educated and cynical electorate.

- Leo Varadkar

If I was to describe myself in terms of a political philosophy, I'd cast myself as a social and economic liberal, which is typically what people describe as being left-of-centre on social issues and right-of-centre on economic issues.

- Leo Varadkar

I don't think you can make America great again by trying to go back to an old coal-based manufacturing economy that doesn't really exist anymore.

- Leo Varadkar

What I would rather see, what I think would be the best outcome, is a very close relationship between the United Kingdom and the E.U.

- Leo Varadkar

I know when my father travelled 5,000 miles to make his home in Ireland, I doubt he ever dreamed that his son would one day grow up to be its leader.

- Leo Varadkar

It's not that I'm afraid to be tagged with the label of right-wing or even centre-right; I just don't believe it properly describes either the choice that we face politically or what I'm trying to say.

- Leo Varadkar

I just want people to know that whatever decisions are made on any issue, I'll make them according to what I believe is in the public interest and my own conscience.

- Leo Varadkar

What I would like to build is a new centre, a wider, broader centre, which would encompass a lot of different philosophies - you know, the philosophy that I'm putting forward that is a market liberal philosophy and a socially liberal philosophy but would have room in it for a broader church than that.

- Leo Varadkar

Those of us who are in the centre believe in opening up to the world, believe migration on balance is a good thing if it is managed properly, and believe that multilateralism is the best way to solve problems.

- Leo Varadkar

It's one of my government's ambitions to secure a seat for Ireland on the U.N. Security Council so that we can play an even greater role in international affairs and try to build what we all believe in, which is a world of laws.

- Leo Varadkar

There are far too many people who get up early in the morning, and work hard, who cannot make ends meet.

- Leo Varadkar

Marriage in our Constitution is very clear that it's a man marrying a woman, largely with a view to having a natural family, and if they are unable to do that, obviously then they can adopt.

- Leo Varadkar

In a time of global uncertainty, rising terrorism, and enormous threats to peace, it's right that we as a country should now seek to extend our diplomatic footprint overseas.

- Leo Varadkar

I've never had a choice of which government department I would hold. I've always been assigned a department by the Taoiseach.

- Leo Varadkar

My instinct is to say it as I see it, being a little bit edgy and showing leadership on policy issues.

- Leo Varadkar

I have always stuck my neck out on policy issues.

- Leo Varadkar

We need to stand over our policies when negotiating a programme for government.

- Leo Varadkar

I pledge as Taoiseach to use my office, for as long as I hold it, to advance the cause of LGBT rights, to press for marriage equality across Ireland, to speak up for LGBT rights around the world where they are under attack, and to push for the implementation of the sexual health strategy here at home at a time when it is more important than ever.

- Leo Varadkar

My opinion has always been that when it comes to deciding where specialist centres should be located, whether they are regional or national specialities, it should be done on clinical grounds.

- Leo Varadkar

Neither of my parents are involved in politics or anything like that, but my dad is political, certainly, and we would have always talked about politics and religion and money, and all those things that you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table, we did.

- Leo Varadkar

I was appointed to Cabinet three times; on no occasion did I pitch for what position I wanted.

- Leo Varadkar

What I do now is I train in the mornings, and people ask me why I do it. I do it for two reasons: first of all, to keep in shape, but secondly, I think training, sport, and physical activity is really good for mental health.

- Leo Varadkar

I have a good social life.

- Leo Varadkar

My mum wanted me to be a doctor like my dad, and at 7, I really wanted to be a politician, and I managed in my mind to combine the two.

- Leo Varadkar

It's the middle class; it's middle Ireland, and it's a group of people who often feel that they contribute a lot to the economy and a lot to society, but maybe they don't get as much back for it as they should.

- Leo Varadkar

My job as Taoiseach, and the job of any government, of course, is to represent all people.

- Leo Varadkar

I do think corporations should pay their tax.

- Leo Varadkar

I have expressed a very strong view that no health minister on their own can turn the health service around.

- Leo Varadkar

When a hospital is very crowded, there will be a real push to make sure people get their X-rays, get their tests and, you know, 'Let's get them out in four days'.

- Leo Varadkar

I'll demand of myself and my own government what, in the past, I insisted of others.

- Leo Varadkar

I think there should be a law that would allow the Oireachtas to take pensions away from people. That would go for corrupt politicians; it would go for public servants who failed miserably or were incompetent.

- Leo Varadkar

I am not so naive to think that I can make every problem in the health service go away. No minister can. And never will be able to.

- Leo Varadkar

There are a lot of people who want to retain the Eighth Amendment - I don't agree with that view myself - there are others who want to remove it, but when you ask them what that means, they aren't able to tell you.

- Leo Varadkar

It's up to American citizens to decide who they elect as president.

- Leo Varadkar

We will, of course, work with whoever Americans decide to elect as president.

- Leo Varadkar

People need to trust what gardai say on the stand, and I can understand that perhaps in a scenario whereby lots of things are happening quickly and people are caught up in the heat of the moment, they may have a recollection that isn't exactly as things happened.

- Leo Varadkar

I see us very much at the heart of Europe. We are founding members of the single market; we are founding members of the euro.

- Leo Varadkar

What are these better deals the U.K. really wants from Europe and other countries? Some more clarity would be helpful.

- Leo Varadkar

If Britain doesn't stay in the Single Market or Customs Union, we are very much in favor of a free trade agreement between the U.K. and Europe. We don't want Britain to be punished for its decision to leave, and it is not in our interests for Britain to be punished because we may be the ones who lose out as much if not more than them.

- Leo Varadkar

I am a gay man. It's not a secret, but not something that everyone would necessarily know.

- Leo Varadkar

It's not something that defines me. I'm not a half-Indian politician or a doctor politician or a gay politician for that matter... it is part of my character, I suppose.

- Leo Varadkar

One of the big problems in Dail Eireann is the lack of women.

- Leo Varadkar

People travel overseas to do things overseas that aren't legal in Ireland all the time. You know, are we going to stop people going to Las Vegas? Are we going to stop people going to Amsterdam? There are things that are illegal in Ireland, and we don't prevent people from travelling overseas to avail of them.

- Leo Varadkar

We should advocate that the North should stay in the customs union and the single market and that any customs checks should be in the ports and airports, not on land borders.

- Leo Varadkar

If you want to change things, politics is the best way to do that.

- Leo Varadkar

I've realised that doctors can only help change a certain number of patients, but a Minister of Health can really change things.

- Leo Varadkar

I decided early on to be honest and trust people with the truth.

- Leo Varadkar

The Government needs to be honest and straight with people.

- Leo Varadkar

I was with my mum in the shops, a ladies boutique or something, and I was asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. I think you're supposed to say an ambulance man or a footballer or a soldier or something like that, and I told all my mother's friends that I wanted to be Minister for Health. She was mortified, needless to say.

- Leo Varadkar

I'm not going to tell the American president how to run America, but I think it is important that when friends are speaking to each other that they are able to be very frank in the views that are exchanged, and I certainly will be doing that.

- Leo Varadkar

Geographically, we are at the periphery of Europe, but I don't see Ireland in that way. The way I see us is as an island at the center of the world.

- Leo Varadkar

Around the world, people look to Ireland as a country where it doesn't matter where you come from but where you want to go.

- Leo Varadkar

When a hospital isn't under as much pressure, you start to see things slowing down, and it might take five, six, seven days to get the person discharged, and that's the length of stay, so it's all these different factors come into play all the time.

- Leo Varadkar

Prejudice has no hold in this Republic.

- Leo Varadkar

I consider myself pro-life, as I accept that the unborn is a human life with rights, and I do not support abortion on request or on demand.

- Leo Varadkar

What I am interested in are the philosophies of the future. That's what drives me.

- Leo Varadkar

We always need to bear in mind that when it comes to blood transfusion, it's the person that's receiving the blood who takes the risk, not the person donating it.

- Leo Varadkar

In any walk of life, it's very easy to judge people's actions in retrospect.

- Leo Varadkar

I find it scary when people talk about me as a future leader. It's like putting a big target on your back.

- Leo Varadkar

Politicians should trust people with the truth. Very often, we don't do that.

- Leo Varadkar

The traditional divide between left and right, capital and labor, small state and big state, high taxes and low taxes doesn't define politics in the way it did in the past.

- Leo Varadkar

It's fair to say that the policy and character of my government would be, or the government which I lead, would be very different to that of President Trump.

- Leo Varadkar

Obviously, nobody likes to read or hear about anyone having a bad experience in our hospitals.

- Leo Varadkar

I suppose I've always put the career, the job and politics, all of that first.

- Leo Varadkar

Enda Kenny has the full support of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.

- Leo Varadkar

My difficulty with the whole right-left construct is that I don't think it describes modern politics or the modern choices that people face in the world.

- Leo Varadkar

I keep my private life to myself, and that's going to continue.

- Leo Varadkar

What I see around the world are movements around people like Macron in France and Trudeau in Canada.

- Leo Varadkar

Nobody that I know would ever say that I'm sexist.

- Leo Varadkar

We can't have a government that will collapse in three months.

- Leo Varadkar

I don't think my election as Taoiseach actually made history - it just reflected it, reflected the enormous changes that had already occurred in our country.

- Leo Varadkar

I have enormous respect for people who come from a strong family background in Fine Gael.

- Leo Varadkar

Fine Gael is the party of opportunity, and no matter what background you come from, we give people a chance, and it gave me a chance.

- Leo Varadkar

Fine Gael needs to be Fine Gael and needs to stand its ground. It should not sacrifice its politics for position in government.

- Leo Varadkar

Whatever happens with Brexit, what I am absolutely convinced will not happen is that free movement of individuals, free movement of people, will not change, North and South without passports.

- Leo Varadkar

An agreement is an agreement, and when you make it, you should stick to it.

- Leo Varadkar

I always think that friends and family are off-bounds. I went into politics; they didn't.

- Leo Varadkar

I would love to believe that my political judgment is impeccable, but it's not.

- Leo Varadkar

I don't rule out raising some taxes into the future.

- Leo Varadkar

There should be no economic border at all between the North and South.

- Leo Varadkar

I don't see myself in politics at 51. I definitely want to do something else.

- Leo Varadkar

It's amazing that people were talking about me as a future leader back in 2011.

- Leo Varadkar