Zitat des Tages von Leo Varadkar:
What I would rather see, what I think would be the best outcome, is a very close relationship between the United Kingdom and the E.U.
Whatever happens with Brexit, what I am absolutely convinced will not happen is that free movement of individuals, free movement of people, will not change, North and South without passports.
Unless people who voted for unionist parties are suddenly going to vote for a united Ireland, which I don't believe will happen, a border poll will be defeated.
I was with my mum in the shops, a ladies boutique or something, and I was asked what I wanted to be when I grow up. I think you're supposed to say an ambulance man or a footballer or a soldier or something like that, and I told all my mother's friends that I wanted to be Minister for Health. She was mortified, needless to say.
I think there should be a law that would allow the Oireachtas to take pensions away from people. That would go for corrupt politicians; it would go for public servants who failed miserably or were incompetent.
We always need to bear in mind that when it comes to blood transfusion, it's the person that's receiving the blood who takes the risk, not the person donating it.
We have an educated and cynical electorate.
My job as Taoiseach, and the job of any government, of course, is to represent all people.
There are far too many people who get up early in the morning, and work hard, who cannot make ends meet.
It's not that I'm afraid to be tagged with the label of right-wing or even centre-right; I just don't believe it properly describes either the choice that we face politically or what I'm trying to say.
If you want to change things, politics is the best way to do that.
I have always stuck my neck out on policy issues.
I pledge as Taoiseach to use my office, for as long as I hold it, to advance the cause of LGBT rights, to press for marriage equality across Ireland, to speak up for LGBT rights around the world where they are under attack, and to push for the implementation of the sexual health strategy here at home at a time when it is more important than ever.
We will, of course, work with whoever Americans decide to elect as president.
Geographically, we are at the periphery of Europe, but I don't see Ireland in that way. The way I see us is as an island at the center of the world.
I'm not going to tell the American president how to run America, but I think it is important that when friends are speaking to each other that they are able to be very frank in the views that are exchanged, and I certainly will be doing that.
Obviously, nobody likes to read or hear about anyone having a bad experience in our hospitals.
I've realised that doctors can only help change a certain number of patients, but a Minister of Health can really change things.
The traditional divide between left and right, capital and labor, small state and big state, high taxes and low taxes doesn't define politics in the way it did in the past.
I'll demand of myself and my own government what, in the past, I insisted of others.
Often, the people who speak loudest about republican values are the least when it comes to honouring them.
Marriage in our Constitution is very clear that it's a man marrying a woman, largely with a view to having a natural family, and if they are unable to do that, obviously then they can adopt.
Neither of my parents are involved in politics or anything like that, but my dad is political, certainly, and we would have always talked about politics and religion and money, and all those things that you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table, we did.
There are a lot of people who want to retain the Eighth Amendment - I don't agree with that view myself - there are others who want to remove it, but when you ask them what that means, they aren't able to tell you.
We should advocate that the North should stay in the customs union and the single market and that any customs checks should be in the ports and airports, not on land borders.
My mum wanted me to be a doctor like my dad, and at 7, I really wanted to be a politician, and I managed in my mind to combine the two.
I hope the unionist parties, for example, who would be keen to protect and preserve the Union would see that it's much easier to do that if the U.K. stays within the Customs Union and the Single Market, because that would take away the need for any special arrangement, or bespoke solution, for Northern Ireland.
It's fair to say that the policy and character of my government would be, or the government which I lead, would be very different to that of President Trump.
People travel overseas to do things overseas that aren't legal in Ireland all the time. You know, are we going to stop people going to Las Vegas? Are we going to stop people going to Amsterdam? There are things that are illegal in Ireland, and we don't prevent people from travelling overseas to avail of them.
We really need to come behind and press for marriage equality in Northern Ireland.
One of the big problems in Dail Eireann is the lack of women.
I keep my private life to myself, and that's going to continue.
We would only need a bespoke solution for Northern Ireland if Britain leaves the Single Market.
Those of us who are in the centre believe in opening up to the world, believe migration on balance is a good thing if it is managed properly, and believe that multilateralism is the best way to solve problems.
I find it scary when people talk about me as a future leader. It's like putting a big target on your back.
I suppose I've always put the career, the job and politics, all of that first.