Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said he hoped the “pushback against social progress is just a phase the world is going through”.
Reflecting on his years in politics, he believed it was easy to forget that until a decade ago there was no same-sex marriage in Ireland, abortion was illegal and trans men and women could not have their gender recognised in law without a complicated court process.
“There was no children’s amendments in the Constitution, no statute of sick pay, no paternity leave, no parental leave, and many other things that I think have changed for the better in our society in the past 10 or 12 years,” he said on Wednesday.
Mr Varadkar was speaking at the launch of his memoir, Speaking My Mind, at the National Library of Ireland. It was attended by many political colleagues past and present including his successor Simon Harris, former Green Party leader Eamon Ryan and his successor Roderic O’Gorman.
Former Tánaiste Mary Harney and Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte were also in attendance, as were, somewhat surprisingly, former TDs Mick Wallace and Clare Daly.
Mr Varadkar’s parents Ashok and Miriam were there, as was his partner Matthew Barrett.
At 38, the Dublin TD became the youngest taoiseach in the history of the State and was also the youngest to vacate the office, at just 45, when he resigned in April last year.
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He wrote the book to recall events while they were fresh in his memory, he said. Even so, his former chief-of-staff Brian Murphy and former speech writer and special adviser Professor Patrick Geoghegan, read early drafts and reminded him of things he misremembered.
He joked that he tells students of politics that they could learn from him how to introduce property and carbon taxes without having to withdraw them later, but also how to “absolutely mess up water charges”, which every other country in the world appears to have left behind.
[ Family and care referendums comprehensively defeatedOpens in new window ]
Similarly, they could learn how to pass referendums on abortion and same sex marriage while simultaneously messing up the referendums on a woman’s place in the home and on the definition of the family, he said.
Former RTÉ journalist Bryan Dobson launches Leo Varadkar’s book Speaking My Mind at the National Library of Ireland
The book was launched by retired RTÉ broadcaster Bryan Dobson, who recalled that it was a “political bombshell” when Mr Varadkar announced his retirement last year. Speaking My Mind goes a long way, he believed, to explaining the reasons why Mr Varadkar decided to resign midway through his second term.
“The great enduring value of this book helps us to explain the acquisition, the retention and the deployment of political power,” said Mr Dobson.
Addressing Tánaiste Simon Harris, he said there was nobody in the room not appalled by what he and family have endured by way of threats.