Leo Varadkar believes he won’t be charged with a criminal offence over his admitted leaking of confidential Government documents.
The Tanaiste and Fine Gael leader is at the centre of a criminal probe after he admitted giving a pal a copy of a draft GP contract deal worth €210million.
Mr Varadkar told regional radio station, LMFM, that despite a garda probe into the incident, he did not believe he would face criminal charges.
The document he leaked was marked: “confidential, not for circulation,” but Mr Varadkar gave it to a friend of his, Dr Maitiu O Tuaithail, head of the NAGP (National Association of General Practitioners), before it was fully signed-off.
Mr O Tuaithail’s now-defunct NAGP was a rival organisation of the IMO (Irish Medical Organisation) who were the sole negotiators of the massive contract with the Government at the time.
Mr Varadkar was asked by Michael Reade on LMFM if a minister should step aside while a criminal investigation into his conduct was underway, and he said: “I am not contemplating that and I've been trying to avoid creating new stories about this issue so that's not something I’m considering.
“I don’t believe it’s going to happen.”
He added: “What I am saying is it’s not going to arise.”
Pressed by Mr Reade if he thought that this meant he believed charges wouldn’t arise out of the situation, the Fine Gael leader responded: “That’s correct.”
The Irish Mirror revealed last month that Mr Varadkar was at the centre of a Garda investigation, with detectives from an elite, the NBCI (National Bureau of Criminal Investigations) unit leading the probe.
Mr Varadkar was Taoiseach in April 2019 when the leak occurred and he obtained the confidential document from the Department of Health.
Simon Harris was Minister for Health during that period and he has been interviewed by gardaí, has submitted a written statement, and is not under any suspicion of wrongdoing.
Mr Varadkar is expected to be formally interviewed in the coming weeks.
