Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Democratic legitimacy does not derive from opinion polls, whether it is a door-to-door survey or online and no matter who does it.

In a democracy, and this is a democracy, legitimacy does not derive from opinion polls of any sort carried out by anyone. Sometimes I wish they did because, as the Deputy will know, my own experience is one of doing much better in opinion polls than in real elections. Opinion polls do not confer democratic legitimacy; elections do. Ultimately, this House will form a Government with democratic legitimacy. In the meantime, I will work night and day as hard as I can doing the job that I am entrusted to do by the Constitution.

I fully appreciate and understand the distress and the uncertainty which sixth year students are under. I still get nightmares about my leaving certificate maths paper. I know how traumatic the leaving certificate can be for many people. We will try to bring a conclusion to this matter this week as best we can.

See this speech in context