Minister for Health Leo Varadkar has said he received "press queries" in relation to his sexual orientation prior to revealing publicly that he was a gay man.

Mr Varadkar gave an interview to Miriam O'Callaghan on RTÉ Radio 1 in January, during which he said he felt he ought to "be honest with people" and disclose the fact that he was gay, prior to the beginning of campaigning in the same-sex marriage referendum.

Speaking on The Late Late Show on RTÉ on Friday, Mr Varadkar said there were “definitely rumours” in relation to his sexuality prior to the interview with Ms O’Callaghan.

"There were press queries and that kind of stuff," he said. "I don't think anyone would have broken the story - Ireland thankfully isn't like that in the way maybe England would be."

Regret

Mr Varadkar also expressed his regret for backing the then Fine Gael deputy leader Richard Bruton in his leadership challenge to Enda Kenny in 2010.

“At the time I thought we would have done better under a different leader,” he said.

“The polls were saying he was unpopular with the public and that we would do better with a different leader. As it turns out, I was wrong.

“The public subsequently made a judgment on that and gave us our second best result in history. I would love to believe that my political judgment is impeccable but it’s not.

“Sometimes you get it wrong and that was one of the occasions on which I very clearly got it wrong, and so did all of us, because the public voted the way they did.

“I regret not backing him at the time but you make any decision based on the facts as you see them at the time and sometimes that turns out to be wrong.

“In any walk of life, it’s very easy to judge people’s actions in retrospect.”

Mr Varadkar also dismissed the suggestion that Mr Kenny would be “a liability” in the run up to the next general election.

“He’s a weapon,” he said. “I don’t know if you’ve seen him but he’s a very powerful campaigner.”

Mr Varadkar also reiterated his ambitions to be leader of Fine Gael but said there was currently “no vacancy”.

"I suspect that Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin will have leadership elections long before Fine Gael does," he said.

“In 2021, if I’m still in the Dail and I don’t crash and burn by them, of course I’d be interested.”