{"id":232200,"date":"2026-01-07T11:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T11:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232200\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T11:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T11:45:09","slug":"leo-varadkar-hits-back-after-lonely-childless-man-comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/232200\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo Varadkar hits back after ‘lonely, childless man’ comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leo Varadkar has hit back after being called a \u2018lonely, childless man in his late 40s\u2019 online.<\/p>\n

The former Taoiseach<\/a> had taken to social media to share that nearly 700,000 people have been auto-enrolled into the new \u2018My Future Fund\u2019 pension system.<\/p>\n

Varadkar stated that another 100,000 will be added to the system throughout the year and offered explanations for what the reform means.<\/p>\n

\"LeoLeo Varadkar with partner Matthew Barrett. Pic: Instagram\/Leo Varadkar<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u2018Millions will have a more financially secure retirement. Tens of thousands of families will have a financial cushion if a loved one dies before reaching pension age. Billions of euro that would have been spent on consumption will now be invested in businesses, innovation and state bonds.<\/p>\n

\u2018Every country that\u2019s done this, from Australia to Singapore, is better off for it. Thank you to everyone who worked for the last ten years to bring this project to fruition.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, Mr Varadkar then hit back at one comment after being branded a \u2018lonely, childless man\u2019.<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachLeo Varadkar. Pic: Niall Carson\/PA Archive\/PA Images<\/p>\n

The comment said: \u2018Lonely, childless man in his late 40\u2019s thinks society cares about his opinions.\u2019<\/p>\n

The next morning, Varadkar<\/a> hit back with: \u2018Contest the by-elections. Find out exactly how many care about yours.\u2019<\/p>\n

Varadkar\u2019s reply on X received over double the amount of likes as the commenter\u2019s remark.<\/p>\n

\"leoPic: Niall Carson\/PA Wire<\/p>\n

A by-election will have to take place in Dublin Central in the next few months due to Paschal Donohoe\u2019s<\/a> resignation in November.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the New Year brought the new pension auto-enrollment scheme<\/a> with it, in a big change to employment law.<\/p>\n

All employees between 23 and 60, who are not already in an occupational pension scheme and earn over \u20ac20,000 across all of their employments, have been enrolled in the system.<\/p>\n

\"LeoLeo Varadkar and Matt Barrett. Pic: Instagram\/Leo Varadkar<\/p>\n

The system will be gradually phased in over the next 10 years. Both employer and employee contributions start at 1.5% and increase every three years by 1.5% until they eventually reach 6% by the decade\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

The State will also top up contributions by \u20ac1 for every \u20ac3 saved by the employee.<\/p>\n

It comes as Mr Varadkar had a great start to the new year with his long-term partner, Matt Barrett, as the pair spent some time in South Africa<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taking to social media, Mr Varadkar shared snippets of how he spent the first few days of 2026.<\/p>\n

He wrote: \u2018Sorry to be leaving Cape Town (and the Western Cape) after such a wonderful trip.<\/p>\n

\u2018It\u2019s definitely on my top ten places to visit. I know the world by its administrative and business capitals.\u2019<\/p>\n

He added: \u2018So much more out there to see. But will be back here for sure.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leo Varadkar has hit back after being called a \u2018lonely, childless man in his late 40s\u2019 online. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":{"0":"post-232200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}