Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is indeed a day of change, shock and surprise to so many of us here in Leinster House. I am a Taoiseach's nominee and a person who is new to public life. I say new but it is now four or five years; I am not so new anymore. The leadership of the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has been something that has been inspirational. At close quarters, working together in a coalition on the programme for Government and with different parties, I have seen things getting done. That has been a mark of this Government and of the Taoiseach as part of it and leading it. We have seen his humanity and his empathy in the speech that was given today. We have seen what this means to the man who has given an awful lot in terms of sacrifice for public service. In public life, we need people of courage and conviction. We need people with that humanity and kindness. That is something that has marked me over the past number of years. It is a major shock because this is the person who nominated me and who brought me to this role in public life and to be able to represent my region. It is very important that he is acknowledged as someone who looked at the country as a whole and who acknowledged there needed to be representatives from all parts of the country both in the Dáil and the Seanad.

We are seeing now that the country is at its highest population. We are seeing the most people back at work. These again are all elements of Government policy over the past ten to 15 years that have been brought to bear. There has been a lot of groundwork in that. The investment in our hospital networks and beds that we are seeing in regional areas is absolutely crucial. When it comes to being able to deliver services, that is something we have been able to do thanks to a prosperous economy. One of the other items I mention is what the Taoiseach has done-----