Highlights: After Britain, an Indian has become the Prime Minister of Ireland
Dublin: Not long after Rishi Sunak, who is of Indian origin, was elected Prime Minister of Britain, an Indian-origin has become Prime Minister of Ireland.
The current Prime Minister, Micheal Martin, will submit his resignation to the President on December 15, according to the agreements on the administration front in Ireland. On the same day, Leo Varadkar, who is of Indian origin, will be elected Prime Minister in the Dail (Irish Parliament). This is the second time that Leo Varadkar will be Prime Minister of Ireland.
Varadkar was born in Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital on January 18, 1979, as the third and only son of Ashok and Miriam (née Howell) Varadkar. His father was born in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and migrated to the United Kingdom to work as a doctor in the 1960s. His mother met her future husband while working as a nurse in Slough. She was born in Dungarvan, County Waterford. They were married in the United Kingdom in early 1971. They resided in Leicester, where their eldest child, Sophie, was born. The family moved to India, before settling in Dublin in 1973, where their second child, Sonia, was born.
Varadkar was born in Dublin and attended Trinity College Dublin to study medicine. He worked as a non-consultant hospital doctor for several years before becoming a general practitioner in 2010. In 2004, he joined Fine Gael and was elected to Fingal County Council, where he later served as Deputy Mayor. In 2007, he was elected to Dáil Éireann for the first time. During the campaign for the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, Varadkar came out as gay, becoming the first serving Irish minister to do so.
Leo Varadkar and his partner Matt Barrett have been together since 2015, and the couple presently reside in a lovely Dublin home just off the South Circular Road.
When Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced his resignation as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader in May 2017. Although more party members voted for his opponent, Simon Coveney, Varadkar won by a considerable margin among Fine Gael members of the Oireachtas and was chosen leader on 2 June. He was appointed Taoiseach twelve days later, making him the youngest person to occupy the position at the age of 38. He is Ireland’s first openly gay prime minister and the world’s fourth, as well as the first Taoiseach with Indian heritage.
Varadkar called a general election in February 2020. While surveys in 2019 predicted a favourable outcome for Fine Gael, the party finished third in terms of seats and votes, after Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin, with 35 seats, a loss of 15 seats from the last general election, when it had come in first position. Varadkar resigned and was succeeded as Taoiseach by Micheal Martin. As part of a three-party coalition comprised of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, and the Green Party, he was later appointed Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Employment.
In recent years, Ireland’s Indian population has grown dramatically. The Department of Enterprise, Innovation, and Trade managed by Leo, has formulated many plans for foreigners, including Indians, to find employment in Ireland, which has helped to increase labour migration more than in the past.
Despite their differences of opinion, Leo Varadkar is a favourite of Indians in Ireland. That is why they warmly welcome Leo Varadkar to his new position as Prime Minister.
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