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

I thank the Taoiseach, the leader of the Green Party, my party colleagues, colleagues in Fianna Fáil and Independent Deputies for their words of support.

First of all, I wish to restate my apology to the House. I am sorry for my actions that gave rise to tonight's motion and I accept sole responsibility for them. While my motivations were sound, the manner in which I conducted myself was not. I do regret this and I have learned from it. This is the first time I have faced a motion of no confidence or a motion of confidence in my career. It forces me to reflect on the decisions I have made and the things I could have done differently and would do differently in future.

We all know why Sinn Féin put forward a motion of no confidence. Simply, it keeps the story in the public eye for another week. It distracts from other issues Sinn Féin would rather not talk about. Those in Sinn Féin will defend the indefensible when it involves them but they will not forgive an error of judgment when it involves anyone else.

The truth is that for Sinn Féin politics is a just game. Every flash of outrage, passionate speech and tear choked back is a tactical move. Their spokespeople are articulate and confident but totally insincere. When we make politics a game we devalue public life and let down the people we are meant to serve. We are all guilty of it on occasion but I believe many of those opposite are guilty of it tonight.

I wish to say a few things for the record. The document was the terms of an agreement between Government and a representative body. It was not a contract or was it a collective agreement in the normal sense. Perhaps, that does not matter but it is important to state. Multiple changes were made between the time of announcement and publication but these were not significant. They were generally technical in nature and did not require Cabinet approval. My decision to share the document with the then president of the NAGP had no impact on them. Last Thursday, there was mention of a second document in the Dáil. We have established that this was a six-page summary attached to it. I want to clarify there was no other occasion on which I shared a document with Dr. Ó Tuathail.

As I said last week, I spoke to the former president of the NAGP. On the weekend the story broke, we did so on three occasions. The first was a call from me to him on the Friday night when headlines appeared online. The second was a call from me to him to try to ascertain the date on which I posted the document for my statement. The third was contact from him about a statement the former officers of the NAGP were planning to issue. I said I did not want to direct or advise him but made some factual observations. I want to confirm that we have not been in contact in the nine days since.

I also state categorically that the error in providing the document to Dr. Ó Tuathail, notwithstanding my good reasons, was my own. He is blameless in this regard. He is responsible only of overstating the nature of his relationship with me and the level of his influence, and for sending some messages that were offensive and inappropriate. Having said that, there are few in this House or across the land who would not be embarrassed about the content of messages they have sent to friends or co-workers believing them to be private or confidential.

Dr. Ó Tuathail is a good person, a good doctor and an effective advocate for general practice and for people and patients, especially during the pandemic. I hope that can continue. He is someone who is genuinely committed to providing basic healthcare to those who need it most in his charity work, namely, homeless people, members of the Travelling community, the Roma community and migrants. I know that will continue. Because some people believed he was close to me, they treated him as a pawn and then made him collateral damage. This was raw politics at its most cruel.

As Deputies will know by now, there is more to this story than the sharing of a confidential document. I wish to speak about that for a moment. Our democracy is strong but we are not immune from the corrosive forces being experienced in other established democracies. I refer to fake news, conspiracy theories, the far right, the far left, unregulated fringe publications and unverified social media grievances, score-settling and smears masquerading as journalism, activism or some sort of anti-corruption crusade. I ask Deputies to reflect on their engagement with these forces. By giving them one's name and by repeating their claims, one gives them a legitimacy which diminishes this House.

I wish to put on the record that many of the claims made about me were trumped-up or simply made-up. Yesterday’s article was just one example of this. It alleged ten encounters, many of which simply did not and could not have happened, particularly as I was in Brussels on two occasions, Barcelona on one, out of Dublin on another or demonstrably doing Government business. It claimed four meetings with the Ministers, Deputies Donohoe and Harris, which also never happened. All could have been easily verified and checked if the truth mattered. Truth did not matter, however, and was not the objective.

Last week, I was asked to give a full and detailed account of my actions to the Dáil and to set out the timelines. I have done so. As I said previously, my guiding principle today is the same as it was when I entered political life, that is, to serve my country to the best of my ability, to make a difference while I have an opportunity, to deal with the issues which affect the very future of our nation, like Covid-19 and Brexit, and to build a better society for us all post pandemic.

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