Elaine Loughlin: The mask slips from carefully crafted Brand Leo

Since entering office, Leo Varadkar has worked tirelessly to maintain his public image — if only those pesky journalists would stop interfering.

Brand Leo is a gym-going, coffee drinking, Taoiseach who loves funky socks and hanging out with other young leaders.

But after a year in the job the public have finally been given a glimpse behind the social media spin.

The mask slipped when Mr Varadkar attended a private lunch with young Irish-Americans — hipsters going places and fast, the type of people Leo no doubt identifies with.

And it appears that Leo, in speaking to such a crowd, felt comfortable enough to get a few things of his chest.

It was reported that those in attendance were shocked when Mr Varadkar said he sympathises with US President Donald Trump’s controversial and critical views of the media.

Never one to hide his disdain for anybody who gets in his way, President Trump recently threatened to take accreditation off any journalist who wrote disparaging articles about him or reported in a way he didn’t like.

Speaking in the Dáil yesterday the Mr Varadkar was at pains to state that the two-hour lunch, reportedly paid for by the taxpayer, was a private event.

“It was done at my request because I wanted to sit down with young Irish people living in New York, to have an exchange of views with them and to hear what their thoughts were on the situation in America and in Ireland.

“I would like to be able to respect the privacy of that event but that is not possible now,” the Taoiseach said.

'I actually said a lot of positive things about the media', @campaignforleo tells the Dáil | https://t.co/bz6HAdw6L2 pic.twitter.com/f7ykypfKMi

— RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 4, 2018

Maybe before making the remarks, he should of been reminded of a closed-door speech which got the Attorney General Seamus Woulfe into hot water when he described Shane Ross’ judges bill as “a dog’s dinner”.

Mr Varadkar is over 12 months in the job now and should realise that as leader of the Government any utterances, speeches, off-the-cuff remarks or actions are likely to leak out, especially if they are controversial.

Not only that, but the words of a Taoiseach will be subjected to scrutinising, interpretation and will by virtue of the importance of the office will be listened to.

While opposition parties will do some of that work, it is the media’s job to hold public figures to account.

When taking up to position of Taoiseach, Mr Varadkar came up with the great idea of steering his own message and delivering it straight to the people of Ireland through his Strategic Communications Unit (SCU).

The €5m spin unit’ as it became known, would bypass the questioning journalists. Less than 12 months into its existence the Government were forced - under intense pressure form the opposition - to disband the SCU.

Perhaps, still bitter about the demise of his pet project, the Taoiseach took aim at the Fourth Estate during the New York luncheon, reportedly stating that political journalists are more interested in gathering gossip than focusing on the workings of government.

It was Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who quickly reminded the Taoiseach of the time when Leo was a whipper-snapper minister soldiering under Enda Kenny.

“The Taoiseach complains about too many journalists in Leinster House, and that they are interested in gossip,” he said across the Dáil Chamber.

“He was quite notorious for the ongoing feeding the rumour mill with journalists in Leinster House,” said Mr Martin.

Perhaps the young-gun Taoiseach has risen a little too quickly.