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

As I explained earlier, this was somebody who is a friend but not a close friend. I have lots of friends who are GPs. I did not give them a copy of this document. I only gave it to this particular person, Dr. Ó Tuathail, because he was president of the NAGP and for no other reason. I did so because we had made a Government commitment, announced many times by the Minister for Health in a Government memo, that we would consult, inform and engage with the NAGP. I thought it was appropriate. I took a decision, and it was my judgment as Taoiseach, as Head of Government, that it was appropriate to share this document with that particular group because it represented perhaps 1,200 GPs and I wanted to see whether I could mollify and negate any potential opposition to the agreement being ratified.

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