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Ireland's Deputy Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has apologised "for errors of judgement" after passing a confidential agreement with one medical organisation to another rival one.

The incident took place when he was the country's leader in 2019.

He told the Irish parliament he gave the document to a friend as he wanted to use his office to provide better treatment and services for patients.

He made a statement and took questions from opposition politicians on Tuesday.

The tánaiste (Irish deputy PM) was forced to speak following a report in Irish magazine Village.

It said he passed a draft agreement with the Irish Medical Organisation on new doctors' contracts to a close friend in another now defunct rival group in April 2019.

The magazine raised questions as to whether he had breached the Official Secrets Act and broken the law.

'Not best practice'

Mr Varadkar, a trained doctor, had earlier denied doing so and described the report as defamatory.

He conceded that what he had done was "not best practice" but he had couriered the document to his friend to get wider backing from doctors for the new contract.

"There was nothing selfish, corrupt, dishonest or illegal in what I did," he told the Dáil (Irish parliament).

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Mícheál Martin, from Fianna Fáil, and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan described their Fine Gael ministerial colleague's behaviour as "inappropriate" but backed him to remain in the three-party coalition government.

Opposition parties including Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats have all also described his behaviour as inappropriate and suggested he was looking after an insider and friend in what amounted to an "old boys' club".

Mr Varadkar has a reputation with the public for being a straight talker but his opponents say he is also a master of the darker political arts, which has led to him being dubbed "Leo the Leak".