Leo Varadkar

“I have expressed a very strong view that no health minister on their own can turn the health service around.”

“We always need to bear in mind that when it comes to blood transfusion, it's the person that's receiving the blood who takes the risk, not the person donating it.”

“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.”

“It's amazing that people were talking about me as a future leader back in 2011.”

“We will, of course, work with whoever Americans decide to elect as president.”

“Nobody that I know would ever say that I'm sexist.”

“It was easy for some to jump on the Brexit result and use it to make a land-grab for Northern Ireland, and it was counterproductive.”

“My instinct is to say it as I see it, being a little bit edgy and showing leadership on policy issues.”

“I would love to believe that my political judgment is impeccable, but it's not.”

“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.”

“Prejudice has no hold in this Republic.”

“I have always stuck my neck out on policy issues.”

“An agreement is an agreement, and when you make it, you should stick to it.”

“When a hospital isn't under as much pressure, you start to see things slowing down, and it might take five, six, seven days to get the person discharged, and that's the length of stay, so it's all these different factors come into play all the time.”

“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.”

“There are far too many people who get up early in the morning, and work hard, who cannot make ends meet.”

“There should be no economic border at all between the North and South.”

“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.”

“Economic gains on their own, without a vision for society to accompany them, will result in a squandered prosperity that will ultimately be unsustainable.”

“Politicians should not get involved in the detail of clinical criteria and shouldn't be arguing with professors and consultants over whether there is one standard deviation or two standard deviations.”