Leo Varadkar

Leo Varadkar TD
Varadkar in 2022
14th Taoiseach
In office 17 December 2022 – 9 April 2024
President	Michael D. Higgins
Tánaiste	Micheál Martin
Preceded by	Micheál Martin
Succeeded by	Simon Harris
In office 14 June 2017 – 27 June 2020
President	Michael D. Higgins
Tánaiste	Frances Fitzgerald Simon Coveney
Preceded by	Enda Kenny
Succeeded by	Micheál Martin
Tánaiste
In office 27 June 2020 – 17 December 2022
Taoiseach	Micheál Martin
Preceded by	Simon Coveney
Succeeded by	Micheál Martin
Leader of Fine Gael
In office 2 June 2017 – 20 March 2024
Deputy	Simon Coveney
Preceded by	Enda Kenny
Succeeded by	Simon Harris
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	(1979-01-18) 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
Website	www.gov.ie/en/biography/1a42d-leo-varadkar/
Leo Varadkar's voice Leo Varadkar's first speech as Taoiseach elect at the Houses of the Oireachtas Recorded 14 June 2017

This article is part of a series about Leo Varadkar
14th Taoiseach Fine Gael TD for Dublin West Ministerial posts (2011–2017) Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport The Gathering Ireland 2013 National Sports Campus Minister for Health Public Health Alcohol Bill Minister for Social Protection 2017 Irish budget 14th Taoiseach (2017–2020; 2022–2024) 2017 leadership election Minister for Defence 2018 abortion referendum Garda whistleblower scandal Brexit negotiations 2020 Irish general election COVID-19 pandemic 2022–2023 Irish anti-immigration protests 2024 leadership election Tánaiste (2020–2022) Government formation Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment GP contract leak Merrion Gate
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Leo Eric Varadkar (/vəˈrædkər/ və-RAD-kər; 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. A TD for the Dublin West constituency since 2007, he has held a range of other ministerial positions in the Irish government. His political stances have been described as centre-right economically; he has advocated free markets, lower taxes, and welfare reform. On social issues, he supported successful constitutional referendums to legalise same-sex marriage and to liberalise Ireland's abortion laws.

Born in Dublin, Varadkar is multiracial, with a father from Mumbai, India, and a mother from Dungarvan, County Waterford. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and has worked as a non-consultant hospital doctor and general practitioner. A member of Fine Gael since his teenage years, he ran unsuccessfully in the 1999 local elections but was co-opted onto Fingal County Council in 2003. He was elected to the council in the 2004 local elections, attaining the highest number of first-preference votes of any candidate in the country. First elected to Dáil Éireann in the 2007 general election, he was appointed to the cabinet of Taoiseach Enda Kenny following the 2011 general election, which saw Fine Gael return to government after 14 years in opposition. He served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport from 2011 to 2014, Minister for Health from 2014 to 2016, and Minister for Social Protection from 2016 to 2017. During the campaign for the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, he came out as gay, the first serving Irish minister to do so.^[1]

Following Kenny's resignation, Varadkar defeated Simon Coveney in the 2017 Fine Gael leadership election and was appointed Taoiseach on 14 June 2017. Aged 38, he was at that time the youngest Taoiseach in the history of the state.^[2] He became the first Taoiseach from an ethnic minority group,^[3] as well as Ireland's first, and the world's fifth, openly gay head of government.^[4] He led Fine Gael into the 2020 general election, in which the party won 35 seats, a loss of 15 seats since the 2016 general election. After lengthy negotiations, Fine Gael formed a three-party coalition government with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, with the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael party leaders rotating the offices of Taoiseach and Tánaiste.^[5] Varadkar served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to December 2022, when he exchanged positions with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin to begin his second term as Taoiseach. Citing personal and political reasons, he resigned as Fine Gael leader on 20 March 2024,^[6][7] and resigned as Taoiseach on 8 April.^[8] Succeeded by Simon Harris,^[9] he remains in the Dáil as a backbencher.