LEO VARADKAR HAS said he has not made a decision yet if he is going to run for election to Dáil Eireann again. 

Speaking at Government Buildings this afternoon at a photocall for Daffodil Day on Friday, he said:

“I haven’t made that decision yet. I’m certainly not resigning my seat or anything like that. I look forward to taking up a role in the back benches.”

The Taoiseach added it is “too big a decision to make today”. 

When asked by The Journal if he would be interested in prising the EU Commissioner job away from Fianna Fáil, he replied: 

“Look, it’s not for me. More than seven years now of long days, late evenings and most weekends and an awful lot of travel. I need to stop that for a while.”

When asked if there were any interesting opportunities in America, he replied, laughing:

I have no CVs printed, I have not been looking around.

The Journal also asked when he made the final decision that he would step down.

He said he had been prepared in his mind for some time for the decision, but stated: 

“Really only definitively at the weekend. But obviously, I’d been weighing it up I suppose since Christmas, New Year, but definitively only at the weekend.

“I think once you decide that you don’t want to stay on you can’t say on.”

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with Daffodil helpers, brothers Traolach (5) & Conán Hand Codd (2) from Donabate, Co.Dublin

The Taoiseach had personal time set aside on Saturday while in Washington DC. He told this publication that he used that time to tell his staff of his decision. 

Varadkar resigned as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader in a shock announcement at Government Buildings this afternoon.

Varadkar has just returned from the annual St Patrick’s Day trip to the US where he met with President Joe Biden.

At about 12.15pm, he said that he would step down as president and leader of Fine Gael, and hopes that a new leader will be elected by 6 April when the party will hold its Ard Fheis.

In an emotional statement, he said politicians are human beings who can only give so much before they have to “move on”.

Varadkar noted that the reasons for his decision are “both personal and political”.