Leo Varadkar admits he would prefer a summer election “for a lot of reasons” - but it may not be his or Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin’s call.
The Taoiseach said he hasn’t talked about any dates with any Government minister but that doesn’t mean politicians won’t speculate.
The 40-year-old said he is focusing on doing his day-to-day job and not election planning.
He told the Marian Finucane Show on RTE Radio 1 yesterday, hosted by Brendan O’Connor: “When this Government was formed I don’t think anyone thought it would last this long.
“The reason it has is because of a truce between the two main parties over Brexit.”
Mr Varadkar added that now essentially “Brexit is moving on to another phase”.
He said: “What we have achieved is avoiding a hard, no-deal Brexit.”
Separately, Leo Varadkar said he didn’t “sanction” Dara Murphy taking up his role in Brussels with the European People’s Party.
The Taoiseach did know about the appointment and hadn’t given his permission.
However, he did not disapprove of the ex-Fine Gael TD for Cork North Central taking the post.
Mr Varadkar admitted he sent a press release congratulating Mr Murphy on the job at the time.
He said: “You will often see across political parties TDs taking on that type of role.”
The Taoiseach said in Mr Murphy’s case, it has to be investigated following the questions now being asked about him.
Mr Varadkar added: “The record shows he kept his constituency office open and he was in the Dail on X number of days, 120 days and so on.
“But people are now questioning that so that has to be investigated. That is something that isn’t entirely under my control. If he was still a member of the House he could be investigated.
“We need to find an alternative option. We may appoint an independent person to examine it.
“The record shows he was present for at least 120 days in the Dail last year.
“It wasn’t the case I was only seeing him in Brussels.”
Meanwhile, Leo spoke about the shortage of beds at the children’s hospital in Crumlin and the cancellation of chemotherapy sessions.
He said it is “wrong” and “terrible” but the Government plans to solve it.
