Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister for Health Leo Varadkar chat over a cuppa during the Fine Gael Think-In last September in Cork. Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland Eamonn Farrell / Photocall Ireland / Photocall Ireland

HEALTH MINISTER LEO Varadkar has this morning said on RTÉ Radio One that he is “a gay man”.

Speaking to Miriam O’Callaghan he’s said that his sexuality is not something that defines him, and noted that there’s “probably an LGBT person in every family and in every group of friends.

Varadkar also said that those closest to him already knew about his homosexuality, and said that he had given his family a heads up that he would be doing the interview with O’Callaghan, joking:

I wouldn’t want them being asked in mass in a few hours time.

Another person Varadkar told recently was the Taoiseach Enda Kenny, who he called this weekend.

The Health Minister said that he “barely had to tell him” and that the Taoiseach “already knew”, with Kenny telling him it was his own private life and none of his concern.

He couldn’t resist dropping in a little brag though. Varadkar told Miriam that the Taoiseach asked him “if I’d ever been to Pantibar” – the gay bar on Dublin’s Capel Street, owned by Rory O’Neill aka Panti Bliss.

He hasn’t, as it turns out.

Enda has though.

There you go Varadkar, I’m ahead of you already!

Enda Kenny was in Pantibar last December to help Fine Gael’s LGBT group celebrate their Christmas party.

Varadkar didn’t say if he’d be paying the bar a visit any time soon, but the Taoiseach won’t be letting him forget that he beat him to it.

Last December: Enda Kenny paid a visit to Pantibar>

“It’s not something that defines me”: Health Minister Leo Varadkar reveals that he’s gay>