Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, gave an insight in parliament last week about how policy is made. 

Speaking in the Dáil, he told of how a poem by former Minister for Children, Katherine Zappone, read out during a ministerial cabinet meeting, convinced him that he needed to introduce a scheme of redress for residents of the Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland in the 20th century.  

The contents of the poem have yet to be revealed, but Mr Varadkar indicated that it was powerfully emotional, telling the Dáil: “I remember her addressing that Cabinet meeting and almost breaking down in tears as she read out a poem she wrote herself on that day”.