Leitrim statement continues to haunt Varadkar as he backtracks on comments about rural Ireland
As a young Fingal County Councillor in 2005, Mr Varadkar said: “Leitrim is a figment of the imagination and is nothing more than a social welfare scam."
The Irish Times this week confirmed comments that Cllr Paddy O’Rourke made on Ocean FM stating that Mr Varadkar said that "Leitrim is nothing more than a social welfare scam" were correct.
As a young Fingal County Councillor in 2005, Mr Varadkar said: “Leitrim is a figment of the imagination and is nothing more than a social welfare scam."
The Irish Times said that his “His gag,” it was reported, “reduced the chamber to howls of laughter.”
Speaking to the Leitrim Observer, at the time, Cllr Enda Stenson said: “I don’t think anyone should be allowed to make a skit of Leitrim people, no matter who they are."
Meanwhile, former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has apologised for saying that people in urban areas were paying more tax while those in rural Ireland were "in receipt of a lot of subsidies and a lot of tax benefits that other people don't get".
Mr Varadkar said he had not set out to be divisive or to offend anyone.
However, he stood by some statements, including the comment that the majority of tax is paid in urban Ireland and 80% of food is now imported into this country.