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 do think corporations should pay their tax.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I always think that friends and family are off-bounds. I went into politics; they didn't.
I have enormous respect for people who come from a strong family background in Fine Gael.
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.
It's up to American citizens to decide who they elect as president.
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.
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.
If you want to change things, politics is the best way to do that.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I won't be allowing my own background or my own sexual orientation to dictate the decisions that I make.
I keep my private life to myself, and that's going to continue.
We can't have a government that will collapse in three months.
What are these better deals the U.K. really wants from Europe and other countries? Some more clarity would be helpful.
I'll demand of myself and my own government what, in the past, I insisted of others.
One of the big problems in Dail Eireann is the lack of women.
We would only need a bespoke solution for Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the Single Market.
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.
There are far too many people who get up early in the morning, and work hard, who cannot make ends meet.
The gutter is Bertie Ahern's natural habitat.
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.
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.
Prejudice has no hold in this Republic.
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.
I am a gay man. It's not a secret, but not something that everyone would necessarily know.
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.
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.
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.
Enda Kenny has the full support of the Fine Gael parliamentary party.
We will, of course, work with whoever Americans decide to elect as president.
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.
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've realised that doctors can only help change a certain number of patients, but a Minister of Health can really change things.
Nobody that I know would ever say that I'm sexist.
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.
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.
