Leo Varadkar: Irish government wins confidence motion

The Irish government has won its confidence motion in Tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) Leo Varadkar following his handling of a confidential document.

He has apologised "for errors of judgement" after passing a confidential agreement with one medical organisation to another rival one.

The incident took place when he was the country's leader in 2019.

The confidence motion on Tuesday evening was in response to Sinn Féin's no-confidence motion in his position.

Last week, Mr Varadkar told the Dáil (Irish parliament) that he gave the document to a friend as he wanted to use his office to provide better treatment and services for patients.

He repeated his apology in the Dáil on Tuesday saying his motivations were sound and he had learned from it.

The current Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin told the Dáil that Sinn Féin's no-confidence motion in the tánaiste was a "100% cynical move".

Mr Martin said the leaking of the confidential document was inappropriate and should not have happened, but he said nobody had demonstrated any personal gain and public policy was not adversely impacted.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney said Sinn Féin was trying to sow division in government and to capitalise on a mistake by the tánaiste.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the taoiseach of "standing idly by" while Mr Varadkar leaked a confidential document to his friend.

She said the failure of Mr Martin to act was a "failure of leadership".

The Labour Party said the tánaiste should have come clean and dispensed with the "incredible yarn" that he leaked the document for the good of the document.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said his party accepted Mr Varadkar's apology.

The Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall claimed in the Dáil that Mr Varadkar had "concocted a false narrative" regarding his leaking of the confidential document.

Mr Varadkar was forced to speak about the incident following a report in Irish magazine Village.

It said he passed a draft agreement with the Irish Medical Organisation on new doctors' contracts to a close friend in another now defunct rival group in April 2019.

The magazine raised questions as to whether he had breached the Official Secrets Act and broken the law.

'Not best practice'

Mr Varadkar, a trained doctor, had earlier denied doing so and described the report as defamatory.

He conceded that what he had done was "not best practice" but he had couriered the document to his friend to get wider backing from doctors for the new contract.

At the time, Mr Martin, from Fianna Fáil, and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan described their Fine Gael ministerial colleague's behaviour as "inappropriate" but backed him to remain in the three-party coalition government.

Opposition parties including Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats have all also described his behaviour as inappropriate and suggested he was looking after an insider and friend in what amounted to an "old boys' club".