Following a terrible weekend at the polls for Labour, Eamon Gilmore has stepped down as leader, making the decision to not lead his party into the General Elections.
In the announcement today, Gilmore commented: “”I made my decision last night. I have asked the executive board of the party to elect a new leader before the end of this Dail term.”
“I believed as citizens and as a party we had a duty to put the country first. I am proud of the progress we have made in achieving those objections. I deeply regret the loss of good public representatives in the local and European elections on Friday.”
Gilmore was positive about the future of the Labour party: “The party and government must move on into a new phase and look to the future. We must do better. We must continue to put country and needs of the people first. We must hear, heed and act on the clear message we received on Friday.”
To finish, Gilmore commented: “I am immensely proud of the courage shown by those members of the Labour party who over the last few years put their country first. It has been an honour to lead them and I look foward to working with them for a very long time to come.”
“I agonised with the decision, and I decided finally last night that the party would be best served by having a new leader.”
The Tánaiste also confirmed that he would remain in politics and would run for re-election. He is currently still acting Tánaiste. His resignation will come into effect as soon as a successor is nominated. The wait for this is likely to be 45 days.
Earlier today, the Tánaiste called an emergency meeting with his Ministers and Junior Ministers following the voting results over the weekend.
It is also reported that the Tánaiste and Taoiseach Enda Kenny had arranged for emergency talks this afternoon to discuss how to move forward after the election results.
The country took to the polls last weekend and overwhelmingly voted to send a clear message to the current government. Party support for Labour has dropped to just 7%, while they have won just 50 seats from the current counts.
Fine Gael support is also down on the last election with 218 seats, while Fianna Fail are way up with 256 seats so far. Perhaps the most surprising win comes from Sinn Féin, with the party currently holding 151 seats, while Independents and Others account for 226 seats.
Kenny has described the elections as a “vote of anger” from the country and the result was the people telling the Government that they need to do better.
The votes for the European elections are currently still being counted but the results so far have not been promising for Fine Gael or Labour. Sinn Féin’s Lynn Boylan has already been elected.
According to RTÉ, 18 county councils have currently completed their counts and less than 50 council seats remain to be filled.
