Former taoiseach Leo Varadkar has revealed he will feature in a travel-related television programme due to air on RTÉ later this year.
The former Fine Gael leader also confirmed he begins a new advisory role with United States-based public relations firm Penta on April 10th – one year and two days after he stepped down as taoiseach.
The former Dublin West TD, who held several ministerial portfolios over 17 years, said he was also excited about starting a new lecturing position at Harvard University “after Easter”.
Speaking to The Irish Times at a road safety event in Galway on Friday, Mr Varadkar said he had been working on “a few different things” since he departed politics in April 2024.
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His predecessor, taoiseach Enda Kenny, fronted a travel series about Irish railways for RTÉ after he left office, and Mr Varadkar joked his TV programme was “a bit like that but not like it at all”.
“You will hear about in due course. It’s a travel-related TV programme. It’s only one episode, not multiple. I enjoyed doing it. I enjoyed working with a crew,” he said.
Mr Varadkar was photographed working with a film crew in a remote part of South Africa last month.
He said RTÉ told him the show would air “in April or September but it’s looking more like September”.
Mr Varadkar also spoke for the first time publicly about his new position at Washington-based PR firm Penta, whose clients include Google, Microsoft, and JP Morgan. The Penta post was “not full-time – it’s a certain number of days per year that I’ll be working”.
“It doesn’t start until April 10th because there’s a one-year waiting period after you’ve given up ministerial office before you can do anything for a company involved in public affairs,” he said.
Mr Varadkar said he would dispense “strategic advice” to Penta clients, “on how to manage all the interesting things that are now happening in the world”.
“It could be tariffs, it could be geopolitics, legislation or really anything that is happening. Given my experience and background perhaps sometimes I can present an insight into that that might be useful or valuable,” he said.
Mr Varadkar follows in the footsteps of former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern by taking a teaching position at Harvard.
His course begins after Easter, and the former minister for health will teach, “leadership, Irish studies, politics and some things around human rights and equality and access to healthcare”.
Separately, since he left the Dáil he said was engaged to do “fireside chats”, which he said had replaced the after-dinner speaker circuit for former world leaders.
“I did one for CNBC in India and Bank of America in Dubai. There’s only a few of them a year but it’s interesting,” he said.
Mr Varadkar ruled out running for president in November and declined to say which Fine Gael figure he supported to be the party’s candidate.
Asked about the ongoing row over Dáil speaking rights, Mr Varadkar said he wasn’t following the issue closely.
“I was at a concert last night and one of my friends asked what I thought of it all and it became very apparent to me that he was more informed about what happened than I was. I probably follow international news a bit more now.
“I think there is always a risk in a small country like Ireland that we forget that we are just a small ship on a big ocean. The focus of our politicians needs to be what’s happening in the world and less on who gets eight minutes of speaking time on a Tuesday or Thursday – but that’s not my fight any more,” Mr Varadkar said.
