Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Just to be clear, I have resigned as Fine Gael president and leader today. I have not resigned as Taoiseach, but that will follow. Our Constitution – and it is the people’s Constitution – is very clear on this.

The office of president is directly elected; the office of Taoiseach is not. The office of Taoiseach is elected by Dáil Éireann, which is elected every five years. It is not unprecedented for the Dáil to elect a new Taoiseach during its term. That was how I succeeded Enda Kenny. That is how Brian Cowen succeeded Bertie Ahern. That is how Jack Lynch succeeded Seán Lemass, and there are many other examples in our 100 years of democracy where a Taoiseach changed without a general election. There was even one example where an entire Government changed, which was when John Bruton became Taoiseach after Albert Reynolds. There is nothing unusual about any of this. It is in our Constitution, the people's book, and has happened on many occasions.

The three party leaders met last night. I met my good colleagues and friends, Deputies Micheál Martin and Eamon Ryan, and it is our view that this Government goes on. This Dáil was elected by the people. This Government was elected by this Dáil in two different formats. This is a Government that has a programme for Government that will continue. An election will happen in due course but rather than having an early election, we want to continue to focus on the issues at hand such as housing, the cost of living, managing migration better, our health service and law and order.

On the issue of housing, the misleader strikes again. Homeownership in percentage terms is not far off what it was in 2011. In absolute terms, it is higher. Some 1.2 million people in Ireland now own their own homes. The Deputy can have a look at the census. Respondents to the census can choose to report the nature of their occupancy or it is recorded as "Not stated", but the percentage of homeownership was in the high 60s in 2011 and is now much where it was then. We are getting on top of the issue of the cost of living. Inflation is coming down. We now see incomes rising faster than prices, which means real living standards are improving again. We are seeing energy bills fall and I believe we will see interest rates fall during the year, which will be welcome to many people, particularly those who have mortgages. On the health service, we see now for the first time in a very long time that waiting lists are falling. They have fallen two years in a row and we intend this year to be the third such year.

The work of the Government goes on. A political party is always bigger than any one man or woman and a government is always bigger than the person who leads it. We will honour the Constitution and our mandate and continue our work.

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