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TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has confirmed that he’s stepping down as Taoiseach and Fine Gael leader.
His resignation as Fine Gael leader is effective immediately but he has said he will resign as Taoiseach “as soon as my successor is able to take up that office”.
The timeline provided by Varadkar is that a new leader could be selected by Fine Gael party members before the party’s Ard Fheis on 6 April.
This would mean that, in theory, Fine Gael could propose a Taoiseach after the Dáil resumes following the Easter recess on 9 April.
Should the party’s coalition colleagues in Fianna Fáil and the Green Party support this nomination in a Dáil vote, there would be no need for a general election.
Varadkar said during his speech that “all three parties, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Greens, and the Oireachtas will continue to work hard for the nation’s best interests.”
Speaking after Varadkar’s announcement, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he expects the current government to go “the full term”.
Martin said that what has happened is “unprecedented in many ways” but in his view their is a clear mandate and programme for government.
“The government has done well,” he said.
Due to the five-year term limits after the current Dáil met for the first time on 20 February 2020, a general election can be held no later than early next year.
Despite this, there have already been several calls for an election to take place with Paul Murphy TD tweeting that “the people should have the right to decide” the next Taoiseach.
Speaking on RTÉ News, Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns TD also said that a general election was required saying that “the writing is on the wall for this government”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik endorsed these views, saying: “What we need is a change of government, not a change of Taoiseach.”
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I am delighted with resignation, one can hope that a few more ministers follow suit starting with Roderick & Helen .
What Job was he promised in US?
Leo the leaks will go down in history as an image of entitled chancer who like everyone in ffg ,believe irsh citizens are not good enough
So matter-of-fact about something so major?…no!…you can’t just keep going with this government now, it’s over
Great to finally see the back of that charlatan
A general election is what 100% of the population want, 100 years of them 2 parties destroying this country, sf need to put enough candidates forward to keep them the greens and the far rights out of government
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s: goodbye democracy, hello socialism?…..that kind of thing…. followed by goodbye multi nationals and hello unemployment. Hello more borrowing to fix it and who knows. I guess a change is as good as as rest!
@Jonathan Kennedy: You do know that socialism is an economic system?
Not a governing system?
Capitalism, socialism, communism are economic systems. Systems that affect the distribution of wealth.
Tyranny, democracy and anarchy are – among others – governing systems. Systems that dictate where power lies.
Any economic system can exist with any governing system.
There is nothing wrong with socialism.
There is nothing wrong with communism.
There is a great deal wrong with capitalism, which needs to be strictly controlled, as we have seen to our cost.
Communism has existed successfully for thousands of years.
As has socialism.
Or world is much better for both.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: yes I do.
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: most of what you have said is completely not correct. Democracy is from the Greeks in the 5th century. Communism only goes back to the 15 hundreds. Most communist countries are ruled by dictatorships……I couldn’t be arsed pointing out the rest “teacher”. “Nothing wrong with communism” and Nothing wrong with socialism”? Who are you trying to kid. Europe has never been closer to a dictatorship in centuries since the advent of the EEC aka EU. the problem is that most people don’t recognize it. There is always a dictatorship or hierarchy behind any organised social system. If communism is so good, why did USSR and Berlin have curtains and walls. Was it to keep it’s citizens in or out?
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s: So you know what 100% of the people think! I don’t remember you asking me what I think.
@he didnt take the 120k because he already got it s: SF are going to be no different, we have seen their stance on lots of issues over the last few months, totally at odds with what the people want.
@Jonathan Kennedy: Communism is as old as the hills.
Communism is where the community owns and controls their own resources.
An example of communism is the monastery, which long predate Christianity by the way.
Another is Commons, land owned but the entire community for use by that community.
Communism has worked well – very well – for millennia.
As for your reference to communist countries being run by dictatorships:
Is the real problem then the dictatorship?
In any case, those countries that I presume you are referring to are/were
not communist. (A simple test: did the community own and control their own resources?)
You other questions answer themselves from that.
After his free trip to America courtesy of the tax payer
One would wonder what brought this on.
Is internal party polling predicting a meltdown for FG?
Is the main alternative for leader of FG now out of the running for some reason, with another that Leo would support now a contender?
Does Leo think it’s time for him to cash in his chips, and collect his reward?
Anyone got an idea what’s going on here?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Perhaps the simplest answer is the correct one: LV said that politicians are human beings that can only give so much before they have to move on.
@Brendan O’Brien: Just what did he ever give?
Oh, you mean to the vampire funds, and others who were pillaging the country.
@Brendan O’Brien: isn’t that what was said in new Zealand and in Scotland in the last 18mths or so
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: You might think it’s an easy job, but I very much doubt that.
@Brendan O’Brien: How does that sentiment explain Joe Biden then.. ?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: I’d say there’s more to this than what he said. It is all too sudden.
@Brendan O’Brien: It’s easy to NOT stand up for the people that you are supposed to represent. To just allow the vultures and vampires to take what they want.
Or even to be complicit in that.
There should be a GE. The people want change now. We don’t want anymore of Fg/FF/rte bs . Irish people have had enough of you
You made life miserable for working class people. Actually your hatred of working class people could be seen a mile away. Thatcher would be proud of you.
@Stella Charlie: “We”, “the people”….can you narrow it down a bit further. I work and life is pretty good these days. Does that mean I’m not a part of “the Irish people”?
@Sal Paradise: If life and work is pretty good for you, then you are the minority.
@Sal Paradise: oh come off it. They done nothing for homelessness in how many years in power yet housed migrants at the drop of a hat. The state of hospitals is a fn disgrace, we’re over charged on basically everything. They waste money like it grows on trees. And you want to vote them in again? Oh and they want to take away free speech 2
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: Most of my family and friends must me the minority so. Does that mean none of us are in the “we the Irish people” category? Commentators who use that term to imply that all Irish people have the same views of them is bullshi!te.
@Damien Leahy: That is fine but I don’t accept people generalising and stating that all Irish people have the same views. In reality they don’t. I didn’t say I wanted to vote them in again but some people do and this my original comment stands.
@Sal Paradise: I wasn’t replying to you,I agree with your comment. Journal is on the blink I’d say
Odd that mehole was out there too, now he’s t-shock again,one var is off
@P. V. Aglue: he isnt Taoiseach again, fg hold that role it has to go to someone in fg mm is ff
News of the day, made me smile.
Sign the petition calling for a General election
https://my.uplift.ie/petitions/call-for-a-general-election-12
@Ross: No. Between €20 million and €30 million of taxpayer’s money has been wasted on two referendums that changed nothing. No point in wasting more public money on an election that will change nothing. Regardless of when it is held FF and FG will return to Government and the only thing that will change will be the third party or group of independents supporting them.
have your say