Leo Varadkar has said he is “confident in his judgement” and has the confidence of his parliamentary party.
It was reported yesterday that there is growing unease in Fine Gael over a video of the Tánaiste socialising in a Dublin nightclub that has been shared widely on social media.
The video was viewed over two million times before it was taken down by social media site TikTok.
On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said Minister Varadkar was entitled to his privacy.
Leo Varadkar says he is "confident in his judgement" and that he has the confidence of his parlimentary party. He also said "everyone makes errors in judgement".
It was reported yesterday that there is growing unease in Fine Gael over a video of him socialising in a nightclub pic.twitter.com/lmlt1rrvU0
— Barry Whyte (@BarryWhyte85) December 12, 2022
When asked about it this morning, Minister Varadkar said “everyone makes errors in judgement".
“I’m confident in my judgement,” he said.
“I’m confident that I have the support of my Parliamentary Party and of the other coalition partners in Government and that will be, obviously, decided on Saturday.
“I have had the privilege now to be in the Dáil since 2007. “I’ve had the enormous privilege to serve in Government for maybe 12 years now.
“Everyone makes errors in judgement – you wouldn’t be a human being if you didn’t.
“But I hope though when it comes to the big calls - whether it was the management of the pandemic, whether it was Brexit, whether it was managing the economy - that I have made the right decisions.”
Taoiseach
He said people can be “absolutely assured that I am going to give it 100%” if the Dáil accepts him as Taoiseach on Saturday.
“There is nothing I would put ahead of the responsibilities of holding that office,” he said.
“I’ve held it before; I know what it takes and I am committed to doing it again.”
Privacy
On Newstalk earlier, Mr Martin criticised the sharing of the video as a breach of privacy.
“I think, first of all, Leo Varadkar’s life, my life, everyone’s private life is their private life and I do not in any way shape or form condone any breach of that privacy,” he said.
“I think it is wrong, in my view, to be breaching that privacy in terms of filming people in a social context.
“I think that is wrong. The breach of privacy that is involved there.”
Minister Varadkar is due to become Taoiseach again on Saturday, under the deal with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party agreed after the last election.
