The Tánaiste has insisted the GP agreement he leaked to a friend while Taoiseach was not secret or classified.

An ongoing Garda investigation into Leo Varadkar’s sharing of the confidential document has reportedly been upgraded to a full criminal investigation in recent weeks.

Sinn Féin has called for him to step down over the controversy and, on Newstalk Breakfast this morning, party leader Mary Lou McDonald labelled the leak, the “worst form of insider, crony politics at play.”

On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Minister Varadkar said Sinn Féin’s response to the scandal is a "political tactic" that shows their "double standards."

He said Gardaí have yet to make contact with him about the investigation.

“They haven’t been in contact with me yet," he said. "I have offered to meet them.

“I have offered to be interviewed; to make a statement, sworn under caution - whatever is necessary because I am keen to have this matter concluded.

“But when I do make that statement, it is going to be much the same as the one I made in the Dáil last November because the facts have not changed.

“I shared a document with the then-president of the NAGP in a way that was inappropriate. I accounted for it in the Dáil. I apologised for it. There was a motion of confidence on it and the Dáil has confidence in me.

“I didn’t do anything illegal or corrupt or self-interested. There was no personal gain, no personal benefit. I did no harm to anyone and conferred no advantage on anyone.”

Classified

He insisted the document was not classified or secret.

“This was not a Cabinet document,” he said. “It was not a Cabinet secret; it was not a budget secret; it was not classified.

“It wasn’t even a contract; it was an agreement about changes to a contract and negotiations on it had concluded – or at least that is what the Cabinet was informed and I have a Cabinet memo from April 9th to say that.”

Confidential

Minister Varadkar said that, even if the document was confidential, all the important information in it had already been released to the media.

“To the extent that it was confidential, all the salient information and commercially sensitive information was already put in the public domain - not just by the HSE but also by the IMO and by the Government and was widely reported in the media.

“So those confidential details from the document were actually put in the public domain by other people including the HSE and the IMO long before I shared them with Dr Ó Tuathail.”

Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald on the Plinth outside Leinster House, 12-03-2021. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Taoiseach has said he has "no intention of responding " to Deputy McDonald's request for an urgent meeting to discuss her calls for Minister Varadkar’s resignation.

“The Taoiseach received a letter last night and gets letters on a very regular basis from Mary Lou McDonald,” said the spokesperson.

“In many instances, these letters are purely political. It’s a tactic used on a far too frequent basis by the Sinn Féin leader and it lacks sincerity.

“The Taoiseach has no intention of responding on this occasion.”

"Political tactic"

Minister Varadkar told Pat that Deputy McDonald's request, “says a lot about her priorities.”

“To me it is just a political tactic and it shows their double standards too,” he said.

“You will remember, back in 2014, the then-leader of Sinn Féin – a TD at the time – was arrested by the police in Northern Ireland and questioned about the murder of a woman – Jean McConville – and nobody in Sinn Féin called for him to step aside.

“They still won’t even say that is a crime. If you ask them whether the murder of that woman was crime, you will get some cock and bull response about how they wish history was different.

“As we speak, there is a file on the table of the DPP in Northern Ireland regarding about 20 Republicans who attended the Bobby Storey funeral and nobody in Sinn Féin has called on them to step aside.

“In fact, I haven’t even called on them to step aside so it shows their double standards.”

Minister Varadkar apologised to the Dáil last year for his ‘errors of judgment’ in sending a copy of the deal, agreed with the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), to the then-president of the rival National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP) Dr Maitiú Ó Túathail.

He insisted that most of the information in the document already in the public domain when he sent it to the NAGP.

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