Top 66 Leo Varadkar Quotes

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.

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

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

I’d never be overly confident about anything.

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

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.

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

I don’t know why, but I’ve had an interest and passion for politics.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Government needs to be honest and straight with people.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

I have a good social life.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

The gutter is Bertie Ahern’s natural habitat.

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.

I have always stuck my neck out on policy issues.

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.

Prejudice has no hold in this Republic.

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.

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

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

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.

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