Leo Varadkar's spokesman says he's 'grateful' RTÉ rescheduled interview after he 'slept it in'

The Fine Gael leader was due in for a chat on the main 8am slot the day after Budget 2022, but producers were left in a flap when he was a no show.

Despite repeated phone calls to the Tánaiste’s special advisor, there was no sign of Mr Varadkar who arrived at the Donnybrook studios around 40 minutes later.

Having advertised to listeners that the Business Minister was coming up next, Morning Ireland instead filled the slots with Independent TD Verona Murphy and former Irish international Ray Houghton who chatted to the presenters for an extended period of time.

An apologetic Leo arrived "looking tired" according to one source, who claimed the Tánaiste himself said, “my driver usually wakes me up”, as he finally took his seat with presenter Justin Treacy.

A spokesperson for the Tánaiste said today that he was slightly delayed for the interview but that it had “proceeded as normal”.

“He is grateful to RTÉ for rescheduling it,” the spokesperson added.

It was a long day for the Tánaiste on Tuesday as he staged a press conference and conducted multiple TV and radio interviews as part of the hectic Budget Day schedule.

However, with close to half a million people tuning into Morning Ireland every single day, one source was quoted as saying that "something like this has never happened before" with such a senior figure.