Taoiseach bows out 'with great hope and no regret'

DAIL REPORT:THE TAOISEACH made his decision to resign with "great hope and with no regret", and alone, he told the Dáil.

He said it was "in the best interests of the country, of the Government, that a new taoiseach take charge and lead Ireland forward".

Bertie Ahern said he held "no grudges" and he concluded to sustained Government applause and some from the Opposition: "Now, as I bring my time as Taoiseach to an end in a month's time, I recall that Ireland gave me the opportunity to be part of her history, and now at the end I'll submit to the verdict of history."

Confirming his decision to tender his resignation on May 6th, Mr Ahern said: "It is with a sure faith in our shared future and with great hope and with no regret that I've come to that decision, made that decision alone with a sense of responsibility that this republic charges all our citizens." Politics was "never over", he added.

He acknowledged the comments of Opposition leaders. "I totally acknowledge that they do their job here in a democratic system and in a political way. I hold no grudges, no animosities to anybody inside or outside of this House, though sometimes I think there is a chamber outside of this House that does not have the fairness of this establishment, but that's for another place, another day," he said as the Government ranks responded "hear, hear".

Public service was "a great privilege and a great honour" which he had enjoyed for more than 30 years. "I've been humbled by the responsibility and the trust that people have placed in me.

"Today is not an occasion to give account of what I've done or quite frankly left undone. It's rather a fitting moment to say to Dáil Éireann and to the Irish people that I am humbled I've been entrusted for so long with so great a responsibility of leading my country, to be chosen from my own community as a representative in this House and to have been called by successive taoisigh to serve in government . . . and been elected here in this House on three occasions is an honour and responsibility I think beyond the capacity of any citizen to fully repay.

"In all these years I've never ceased to try to the utmost of my ability to fully discharge those responsibilities to my community, to the country and to this House. If there is any single achievement that this generation can boast, it is that it has realised the hopes bequeathed to it. We hand on confidence as our legacy and we leave tenacity as our testament.

"My deepest wish is that my successor will enjoy the loyalty and support and the wise advice that was so unselfishly given to me by my party colleagues and by hardworking and honourable public servants who I have a huge respect and regard for.

"Some may see the end of a political career as failure, and perhaps in a very narrow and petty sense it is, but for me the only lasting regret I should feel is the failure of ever having tried at all and tried and tried again to vindicate the hopes and aspirations that were invested in me, and my success as it may be is the measure of the unshakeable confidence in the Irish people, in this country's future."