TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar was called "the reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher" by a man while on the election campaign trail today.

Mr Varadkar was was approached by a disgruntled man in Mallow, Cork claiming that the Fine Gael leader's "Tory boy policies" are standing in the way of employment for "the backbone of this society."

"You've basically attacked them and you're taking money away from them," the man said.

"They're only trying to gain employment and your Tory boy policies have absolutely ruined this.

"So, I think you're the reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher."

Mr Varadkar laughed off the claim that he is the former UK Prime Minister reborn, and said that, while he admits 'it's not enough', his government has made more funding available to people with disabilities 'than people have experienced'.

"One of the things we've done in the government is we have increased the disability allowance by €10 or €15 a week at this stage, restored the carer's support grant and this year for the first year we're investing more than €2bn in disability services," he told Independent.ie.

"It's not enough, I know that, but it's a lot more than in the past and certainly a lot more than people have experienced."

Online Editors