Leo served this country with great distinction

IT’S with shock that I learned of the sudden stepping down of our Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.

He served our country well and has left a great legacy.

I hope his successor will carry on the great job of directing this country into the next few months, until the time comes for the next general election.

Listening to people being interviewed for comments, I find it galling when I hear Mary Lou McDonald’s rhetoric, harping on about calling on an election and doing the right thing for the country; laughable in the extreme, when her party knows nothing about the right thing.

They put their leaders and members into place without a bat of an eyelid and no apology to anyone; they are not a normal democratic party.

ÚNA HEATON, Limerick.

... POLITICIANS were back in Leinster House on Wednesday for the first time since the referendums. When journalists went into Leinster House, they were told that there was going to be a shock announcement.

The rumours started to spread.

There was a podium set up in Government Buildings and it was made public that Leo Varadkar was going to make an announcement. It was a statement that would cause a political earthquake. Mr Varadkar had resigned as the Fine Gael party leader and as Taoiseach.

He had led this country through some turbulent times: the Covid pandemic, Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis etc. The focus and attention now will be turn to the local and European elections and who will lead Fine Gael and the Government into these. That decision is set to be made by the time of the Fine Gael ard fheis, which is happening next month.

Could it be Simon Harris, Paschal Donohoe or Heather Humphreys? At this stage we are just guessing because nobody expected this political earthquake. One has to say that Fine Gael had been coming under increasing criticism for being out of touch with voters.

I believe Mr Varadkar is a shrewd politician and one senses that he wanted to avoid an undignified heave.

He would have remembered how such a past heave against a Fine Gael leader proved to be damaging to the party.

I am aware that Mr Varadkar has had his political critics (myself included), but at the end of the day, he served his country with dignity and stateliness.

I certainly want to wish him well in his future endeavours.

JOHN O’BRIEN, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary.