A Cheann Comhairle, tá orm a chur in iúl duit gur éirigh mé as oifig mar Thaoiseach inné trína chur sin in iúl don Uachtarán de bhun an Bhunreachta.

   Yesterday, I resigned from the office of Taoiseach by placing my resignation in the hands of the President, pursuant to the Constitution.   I have had the privilege to serve for the past 20 years as a public representative, 13 as a member of Cabinet, seven as leader of my Party, as Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Taoiseach again. It’s been the most fulfilling and rewarding time of my life.  Today is the beginning of a new era for my Party, a new chapter in my life and a new phase for the coalition Government. I want to offer some special words of thanks to my constituents in Castleknock/Blanchardstown and Dublin West who have elected me to represent them on Fingal County Council and Dáil Éireann on five separate occasions. I shall continue as their TD and look forward to being a full-time parliamentarian and constituency TD again. I want to thank my loyal, brilliant and hardworking staff most of whom left Government Buildings for the last time this morning when I did. I want to thank my Party for choosing me to be their leader and for their support and confidence these last seven years. I want to thank my ministerial colleagues.  They are among the most talented, committed and capable people I know in particular Minister Simon Coveney who leaves Government today as well.   I want to thank the Tánaiste and Minister Ryan.  This historic Government ended civil war politics in our parliament and was the first to include Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.  The trust and respect we built up together ensured that this Government is solid and stayed the course and I think will be a model for future coalitions of equals in this State and elsewhere.   I want to thank the civil and public service for their commitment to this State.  They might not put themselves on ballot papers in the way politicians do but they do put public service first like we do and that ought to be recognised more.   Ceann Comhairle, before I leave this seat, I would like to offer six short reflections:   The first is that Ireland is a great country.  We have been a stable and continuous democracy for over a hundred years, one of only a handful in the World.  We have our problems for sure but we are free, prosperous and safe with huge opportunities for our citizens that would have been unimaginable in the past.  In almost every ranking, we are placed in the top ten or top 20 countries in a world of 200.  We are not a failed state, we are a great state.  We should love it, protect it and build on all that has been achieved since independence to make it better.   The second is that most, if not all, of the problems we have faced in the past 15 years are international in origin or have a strong international dimension to them – the banking and financial crash, Brexit, the pandemic, inflation, the energy crisis, climate change, migration were all problem of global origin.   Even challenges like health and housing, that are more domestic in nature, have strong international dimensions.   Health services are under pressure all over the world due to rising and aging populations, the development of new, often expensive, treatments and a global skills shortage.  Ireland is not an outlier on health.  Much of what we face in housing is linked to changes in the way housing construction and purchase are financed – as well as a rising population and rising incomes, there was a prolonged period of low interest rates and the internationalisation of how new homebuilding and mortgages are funded has meant profound changes in the rental and housing markets. Ireland is an island but not a separate planet.  It’s a fallacy to believe that most of our problems are homegrown or due to any particular political party or ideology.  They are mostly global megatrends.  We are a small ship on a big and restless ocean and we need that ship to be crewed by good people.  The only workable solutions involve multilateralism tackling these challenges with other countries through international bodies like the EU, the UN system and OECD and international agreements.  We must not lose sight of this.   The third is to guard against the risk of excessive caution.  The majority of officials, advisory bodies and academic will always recommend caution, playing it safe, conservative with a small ‘c’.  It’s not always the best advice.  Certainly, had we known the economy would recover so quickly after the crash, that it would not stagnate due to Brexit and it would bounce back so strongly after COVID, many of the investment decisions we m