Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Tairgim:

Go n-ainmneoidh Dáil Éireann an Teachta Leo Varadkar chun a cheaptha ag an Uachtarán mar Thaoiseach.

I move:

That Dáil Éireann nominates Deputy Leo Varadkar for appointment by the President to be Taoiseach.

It was Samuel Johnson who said, "The Irish are a fair people; they never speak well of one another." On most measures, this House would be particularly fair-minded. However, I think I detected a slight quiver in that fair-mindedness today, with genuine warmth for the job the Taoiseach has done. As we pass 100 years as a democracy, as the Ceann Comhairle pointed out recently, we have a very proud record of sustaining democracy throughout a very difficult period. Today, perhaps, we have a more modern and more discerning electorate than we have ever had before. It has high expectations of politicians and it demands the highest standards. That is really important.

When I entered this House, we did, indeed, have rotating taoisigh between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. They changed nearly every nine months and every change was punctuated by a costly and difficult election. It broke many of our colleagues here who wanted to contest those elections. Today, we have a very different transition.

Deputy Micheál Martin has handed on his legacy in superb condition. His instinct for finding solutions in the face of Covid and then Ukraine have shown the quality of the leadership he has offered.

Today is the 15th time I have been involved in the election of a Taoiseach, but the first I have had the honour to make a nomination. The essential ingredients to do this job well are three things: strength of character, courage and restless curiosity. The Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, has exactly those features. His strong character has been formed by being the proud son of an Indian father and an Irish mother, by being part of a family devoted to care as doctors and nurses and by his experience in five Departments, namely, health, social protection, enterprise, transport, tourism and sport, and defence; before becoming the youngest Taoiseach ever at the age of 38.

He has demonstrated his courage and resilience time and again, most notably in launching the campaign to repeal the eighth amendment. He held his nerve in the high-wire Brexit manoeuvring in which so much was at stake for our country and island. He provided reassurance as he led us on the uncharted path after Covid. Seldom if ever did an acting Taoiseach have to make decisions of such grave import.

As a Minister, I felt the value of his restless curiosity and foresight. Without him, we could not have had the national broadband plan that I was proud to be a part of. Without him we could not have had the first climate action plan in 2019. That could not have been put in place. One of the important capacities of someone holding the office of Taoiseach is to know when it is important to stretch people beyond their comfort zone to take on challenges they would perhaps prefer not to. In both those cases, he showed that capacity. That capacity will be so important as we face difficult challenges in the future.

Bernard Shaw said we are made wise not by the recollection of the past but by the responsibility for the future. Ireland continues to transform rapidly but faces grave challenges that we all know about in this House, and does so at a time of enormous global uncertainty. The challenge for the Government in the remainder of its term is to keep in harness together enterprise success, fairness in society and sustainability in our way of life. No one of those can find enduring success without each of the others. That is what the person taking on the role of Taoiseach must ensure. This Government offers the right partnership to confront those three challenges and the Tánaiste is the right person to step into the position of Taoiseach in the next phase of those challenges. It is with great pride that I nominate for the position of Taoiseach the name of the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar.

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