Sinn Féin health spokesman David Cullinane said it was “a scandal”.
“What he was doing was looking after a friend – the old boys’ club, looking after the insiders,” Mr Cullinane said.
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall said there were “a lot of outstanding questions [Mr Varadkar] needs to answer, and the situation is not exactly how he outlined it in his statement on Saturday”.
Mr Varadkar passed a draft of the new deal for GPs negotiated between the government and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in April last year to a friend who was head of a rival group, the National Association of General Practitioners (NAGP). The revelations were published in Village magazine.
'Not best practice'
Mr Varadkar issued a lengthy statement on Saturday evening in which he rejected the claims he may have broken the law. He said he passed on the draft document in a bid to secure wider backing among doctors for the new contract.
Mr Varadkar accepted that his sharing of the document, which he had couriered to the home of Dr Maitiú Ó Tuathail, a personal friend, was “not best practice”. He expressed regret “that he did not ensure that it was provided in a more appropriately formal manner”.
Dr Ó Tuathail said in a statement on Sunday night the document was given to him as part of a pre-existing arrangement to share information on the deal.
The sensitivity of the information received is likely to be a key part of the political fallout from the controversy in the coming days.
