It was remarkable not just for being a milestone - he was the country's first gay minister - but for its timing, coming in the middle of a fractious national debate on Gay Marriage

Mr Varadkar, the son of an Indian immigrant doctor, will become only the fourth openly gay national leader in modern history. How the Fine Gael leadership vote is calculated The new leader of Fine Gael was decided in an electoral college system that gives the Fine Gael parliamentary party, made up of 73 TDs, senators and MEPs, 65 per cent of the vote. Thirty-eight years later, his youngest child is set to become the once-staunchly Catholic country's first openly gay prime minister, its first of Indian descent and the youngest person ever to hold the office.
Leo Varadkar becomes the new party leader of Fine Gael, after winning 51 of 73 votes in the parliamentary party, and is expected to become Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, which would make him the youngest and first openly gay man to be Taoiseach, as well as being the first of half-Indian descent.