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leo varadkar

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Today marks Enda Kenny's final day as Taoiseach – a postilion he has held for the last six years.

The outgoing Fine Gael leader will chair his final cabinet meeting this morning where the agenda is likely to be rounded off with a formal resignation from Mr Kenny.

At 2:00pm this afternoon, the Dáil will resume and it is thought that he will tell TDs and the nation that he is stepping down.

It is likely that Enda Kenny will then give a short farewell speech before travelling to Aras an Uachtarán where he will hand in his resignation to President Higgins.

Fellow party leaders will be given an opportunity to speak in reply to Mr Kenny and the Dáil is expected to adjourn until tomorrow afternoon when attentions will turn to the election of his successor and the announcement of Leo Varadkar's new Cabinet.

It is expected that many of the current ministers will remain in place, however, some may change jobs.

So, what's next for Mr Kenny?

Now aged 66, he is not expected to run the the next election, but according to The Irish Independent, one source revealed 'He would like to remain close to the political action,"

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The results are in and Leo Varadkar has officially been elected as the new leader of Fine Gael.

The leadership was decided in an electoral college system that gives 65 per cent of the vote to the Fine Gael parliamentary party – made up of 73 TDs, senators and MEPs.

The candidate came out on top after the parliamentary party, it's members and councillors had their say.

Despite party members voting in favour of Housing Minister, Simon Coveney, votes from the parliamentary party and Electoral College of local councillors pushed Mr Varadkar out in front. 

He has said he is "delighted and humbled" to win the contest.

At just 38-years-old, he is set to become Ireland's youngest ever Taoiseach.

The final overall result: 

Leo Varadkar: 60%

Simon Coveney 40%

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The MenB, or Meningococcal B, vaccine has been getting a lot of press of late. This morning it's become the subject of some very significant news thanks to the power of an online petition, but the campaign is far from over.

Children in the Republic of Ireland can currently only receive the MenB vaccine – which protects against the leading bacterial cause of meningitis and septicaemia – privately, meaning it can incur costs of up to €280 or more.

Over the last number of weeks, Irish parenting site MummyPages has been petitioning for the MenB vaccine to be available for free to all children in the Republic of Ireland, and last night Minister for Health Leo Varadkar revealed funding had been allocated for it to be rolled out this year.

"Men B vaccinations start this year. Funding is allocated & deal currently being negotiated with producer," he wrote in a tweet to MummyPages' mum-in-residence Laura Haugh.

However, there are NO PLANS to introduce a catch up programme for young babies and children who were born before this time.

“The introduction of Meningococcal B into the Primary Childhood Immunisation Schedule in Q4 2016 is for newborns at 2, 4 and 13 months of age. There are no plans at this time to introduce a catch-up programme,” explained the Health Protection Unit

The parents of UK toddler Faye Burdett highlighted the tragic importance of vaccinating children against MenB recently, when they released photos of their two-year-old daughter before and after meningitis took hold of her, leading to her death on February 14, 2016. 

Babies in the UK are now vaccinated against MenB, but the changes to policy came in too late to save Faye.

Irish children currently routinely receive the MenC vaccine, but the same weight is not applied to MenB, despite it being the biggest cause of infant illness in this country.

If you want to add your voice to the MummyPages campaign, you can do so by signing the petition here.

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If you watched the Election Special on RTÉ2 last night, there was a whole range of issues covered and Keelin Shanley was praised for handling the debate that got quite heated at times.

But if you wanted to take a break from all the serious arguments, then the sound guy was working in your favour.

Right in the middle of the debate, which was held at the Facebook headquarters, a microphone slipped and whacked Leo Varadkar right in the face.

Not many people noticed, but one man couldn't help but have a giggle at Leo's expense because, let's be honest, it was the perfect moment. 

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