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Dublin Live
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Marita Moloney & Alex Dunne

Leo Varadkar celebrates birthday with partner Matthew Barrett and 'fairly miserable' cake

The Tanaiste gave a rare insight into his private life on Wednesday night as he shared a snap with his partner on social media.

Leo Varadkar and Matthew Barrett were celebrating their birthdays which fall within a day of each other.

The Fine Gael leader posted the picture on Instagram of him and his other half enjoying a Battenberg cake together.

He captioned the image: "Joint birthday celebrations after a busy day, ours are one day after another.

"Joint age 78 - I’ll let you guess how to divide it."

Mr Varadkar turned 43 on Tuesday, while his doctor partner marked the day on Wednesday.

Many of his 196,000 followers were quick to send their birthday wishes to the pair, while some questioned the choice of cake, with 2FM's Doireann Garrihy joking: "On a scale of “fairly miserable” to Leo Varadkar's birthday cake, how’s your January going?"

It comes after a busy day for the Tanaiste after a Cabinet meeting to discuss the situation with Covid-19 and the potential easing of restrictions.

Mr Varadkar said earlier this week that he hopes almost all measures can be dispelled by that date as the country emerges from the worst of the pandemic.

Speaking on Wednesday evening, he said while he hopes all legal restrictions will be removed by March 31, he wants to see this done on a phased basis.

“I don’t think we should remove all restrictions in one [fell] swoop,” he told Newstalk's Hard Shoulder programme.

“I would like to see us do it maybe in two or three phases. In case things go off, it does make sense to me to do it in phases.

“The reason I mentioned March 31 as the objective, the target I would like us to set to have almost all legal restrictions removed, is that the emergency legislation for COVID passes, masks and closing businesses expires on March 31 and I wouldn’t like us to have to renew it.

“But if it can be done before then, I would be happy with that.”

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