Leo Varadkar

Leo Eric Varadkar (born 18 January 1979) is a former Irish Fine Gael politician. He was Taoiseach twice, first from 2017 to 2020 and again from 2022 to 2024. Between those terms, he served as Tánaiste from 2020 to 2022. He led Fine Gael from 2017 until 2024. Representing the Dublin West constituency as a TD from 2007 to 2024, he also held several ministerial roles during that period. Politically, he is described as centre-right on economics, supporting free markets, lower taxes, and welfare reform. On social issues, he backed successful referendums to legalise same-sex marriage and liberalise abortion laws in Ireland.

Varadkar was born in Dublin, the third child and first son in a multiracial family. His father, Ashok, is a doctor from Mumbai, India. His mother, Miriam, grew up on a farm in Dungarvan, County Waterford. He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and later worked as a non-consultant hospital doctor and general practitioner. A Fine Gael member since his teens, he lost a 1999 local election but was co-opted onto Fingal County Council in 2003. He won a council seat in the 2004 local elections with the highest number of first-preference votes of any candidate nationwide. He first entered Dáil Éireann in the 2007 general election. After the 2011 general election—which brought Fine Gael back to government after 14 years in opposition—Taoiseach Enda Kenny appointed him to cabinet. He served as Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport (2011–2014), Minister for Health (2014–2016), and Minister for Social Protection (2016–2017). During the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum campaign, he came out as gay, the first serving Irish minister to do so.

After Kenny resigned, Varadkar won the 2017 Fine Gael leadership contest against Simon Coveney and became Taoiseach on 14 June 2017. At 38, he was the youngest Taoiseach in Irish history. He was also the first Taoiseach from an ethnic minority, Ireland’s first openly gay head of government, and the world’s fifth. He led Fine Gael into the 2020 general election, where the party won 35 seats—a loss of 15 from 2016. Following lengthy talks, Fine Gael formed a three-party coalition with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party, with the two larger parties rotating the roles of Taoiseach and Tánaiste. Varadkar served as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment from June 2020 to December 2022, then swapp