Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has been informed that he will not be investigated for breaking ethics rules for sharing a GP contract with a friend.
It comes several months after the gardaí confirmed that Mr Varadkar would not face legal charges over the incident.
Mr Varadkar previously told the Dáil he gave a copy of a GP contract agreement between the State and the Irish Medical Organisation to his friend Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail in April 2019.
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At the time, Mr Ó Tuathail was the president of a rival GP organisation, the National Association of General Practitioners.
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Varadkar confirmed that the Standards in Public Office will not investigate the incident.
“Today, I was informed by the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) that it would not be investigating me for any alleged breach of the Standards in Public Office or Ethics Acts,” he said.
“I have been now cleared of criminal wrongdoing and any breach of ethics or standards.
“This is always the outcome I expected.”
In July, it was confirmed that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had determined that Mr Varadkar had no case to answer following a garda investigation.
He said at the time that he had “always maintained that the allegations made against me were false”.
“I am pleased at the outcome of what was a very thorough investigation,” he added.
He survived a motion of no confidence tabled by Sinn Féin in November 2020, during which he apologised for sharing the contract.
The Tánaiste repeatedly insisted that he had done nothing wrong and said that while what he had done was ‘not best practice’, he had not broken the law.
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