Varadkar: Creighton advice 'was in confidence'

The Transport Minister Leo Varadkar has denied he told a former member of his party and other rebel TDs to toe the party line.

Lucinda Creighton said senior party figures, including Varadkar, told them to keep their heads down in order to get back into the party.

The Dublin South East TD and member of the Reform Alliance lost the Fine Gael party whip over the abortion legislation, and campaigned for a No vote in last Friday's Seanad referendum.

Deputy Creighton claims she has no desire to get back into the Fine Gael parliamentary party, saying: "I mean we have been told, through the grapevine, unofficially, that if we keep our heads down and support everything the Government does, and if we behave like good little children, then we'll be back in the parliamentary party.

"Now I don’t know if that's true or not, but I'm certainly not prepared to test it out."

Minister Varadkar said, while a conversation took place between the pair, he said it is not his style to tell people to keep quiet.

He said he is disappointed by her assertions: "The advice I gave to her was friend to friend, I thought it was in confidence.

"It was a discussion we had the day she resigned. She is somebody who came up through the party with me and I want her to do well, I still do.

"But what I said to her from the point of view of party members was that they would admire her courage by standing by her convictions on abortion and they would understand it."