Leo Eric Varadkar (born 18 January 1979) is an Irish former politician and physician who served twice as Taoiseach, the Prime Minister of Ireland, from 2017 to 2020 and from 2022 to 2024. The son of a doctor from Maharashtra, he was the youngest person, the first of Indian heritage and the first openly gay man to lead the country.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Leo Eric Varadkar |
| Born | 18 January 1979, Dublin, Ireland |
| Age | 47 |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Indian roots | Father Ashok Varadkar, from Varad village in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra |
| Education | Trinity College Dublin (medicine, 2003) |
| Party | Fine Gael |
| Offices | Taoiseach (2017–2020, 2022–2024); Tánaiste (2020–2022) |
| Partner | Matthew Barrett |
Early Life
He was born in Dublin, the youngest of three children. His father, Ashok, was born in Bombay and qualified as a doctor there; his family came from the village of Varad on the Konkan coast. Ashok met Miriam, an Irish nurse, while both were working in a hospital in England, and the couple settled in Dublin in the 1970s, where he practised as a family doctor.
The story is told that Leo, aged about seven, announced that he wanted to be Minister for Health.
Education and Medicine
He studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin, where he was active in the youth wing of the Fine Gael party, and qualified in 2003. He worked in hospitals and then as a general practitioner.
Career
Rise
He was elected to a local council at twenty-four and to the Dáil, the lower house of parliament, for Dublin West in 2007. When Fine Gael came to power in 2011 he became Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, then Minister for Health in 2014 and Minister for Social Protection in 2016.
In January 2015, in a radio interview on his thirty-sixth birthday, he said publicly that he was gay. Four months later Ireland voted in a referendum to allow same-sex marriage.
Taoiseach
He won the leadership of Fine Gael in June 2017 and became Taoiseach at thirty-eight.
- **Brexit:** he insisted that Britain’s departure from the European Union must not bring back a hard border with Northern Ireland, and negotiated the arrangement that avoided one
- **Abortion:** his government held the 2018 referendum that removed the constitutional ban on abortion
- **Covid-19:** he announced the first lockdown in March 2020 and went back on to the medical register to help by telephone one session a week
After the inconclusive election of 2020 he formed a coalition with the rival party Fianna Fáil, serving as Tánaiste, the deputy, for two and a half years before returning as Taoiseach in December 2022 under a rotation agreement.
Resignation
In March 2024, shortly after two government proposals to amend the constitution were heavily defeated in referendums, he unexpectedly announced his resignation, saying that he was no longer the best person for the job. He left office in April and did not stand in the election later that year.
After Politics
He has taken up fellowships at the Harvard Kennedy School and an advisory role with a public affairs firm, and writes a newspaper column. His memoir, Speaking My Mind, was published in 2025.
Personal Life
His partner is Matthew Barrett, a cardiologist. He visited his father’s village in Maharashtra as Taoiseach at the end of 2019, where relatives and villagers gave him a traditional welcome.
Featured image: Leo Varadkar on his election as Taoiseach, December 2022. Photo by Houses of the Oireachtas, licensed under CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
