Varadkar 'not concerned' about his position as Fine Gael leader  

Despite the retirement of John Paul Phelan, the Taoiseach believes he will lead his party to 45 seats at the next election

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is unequivocal that he will lead Fine Gael into the next election.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar says he is "not in the slightest bit" concerned about his position as Fine Gael leader.

Mr Varadkar saw a third TD, Carlow-Kilkenny's John Paul Phelan, announce on Wednesday that he would not contest the next election. 

However, the Taoiseach said he believes he will lead Fine Gael to 45 seats the next time the country goes to the polls.

Despite the retirement of John Paul Phelan, the Taoiseach said he is 'not in the slightest bit worried' about the party's prospects. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Asked if the retirement of Mr Phelan along with Joe McHugh and Brendan Griffin, together with the 2021 decision of former housing minister Eoghan Murphy to quit politics, concerned him, Mr Varadkar said he is "not in the slightest bit worried".

 He said that Fine Gael has more than 50 TDs, senators, and MEPs, many of whom had been in the Oireachtas for over 20 years.

However, he added that "behind them, there are candidates who are dying to get elected to the next Dáil".

"Let’s not forget in the last general election, which was a difficult election for my party, we elected five new TDs. Two of those are ministers and three of those are very much on the rise within the party.”

Asked if he will lead Fine Gael into the next election, the Taoiseach was unequivocal that he will.

My expectation in the next election is that we will have an election result in the mid-20s, that we will have roughly 45 seats, and we’ll have between 10 and 15 new TDs.

Asked about Government plans for this autumn's budget, Mr Varadkar said that the money available to the Government will go on tax cuts and an increase in welfare.

However, he said that provision needs to be made for Ireland to pay its national debt.

“I think any time we talk about the budget surplus, we should not forget the debt. We have a debt of €250bn and on a per-capita basis our debt is quite high. We need to start paying down that debt so that we never have to experience austerity in this country," he said.

He said that work will continue to expand to the point at which the higher income tax bracket kicks in towards €50,000.