The following is the full text of the speech by Mr Dick Spring, leader of the Labour Party, to the IT]Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting yesterday:
I have to advise the parliamentary party, with regret, that I have decided to resign as leader of the party. If it is acceptable to you, and to the general council, I will be proposing that my resignation should take effect on Friday, November 7th. I will be further proposing that the parliamentary party and general council would meet on Thursday, November 13th, to elect a new leader of the party.
These arrangements have been discussed with the chairman of the PLP and the chairman of the general council, John O'Brien, and both have agreed that the time-scale involved is appropriate. It would be possible, I believe, to conduct a leadership campaign in an honest and civilised way in that time - and the tasks facing a new leader are sufficiently urgent to warrant speed.
I would like, if I may, to outline the reasons behind my decision. Before doing so, I would like to say a few words about the outcome of the presidential election. I am proud of the role we played in that election, and particularly proud of the candidate we chose. I was given a mandate by this body in Mullingar to seek a candidate who could attract a broad base of support, and when I presented that candidate to the PLP and to the general council, she received the unanimous and enthusiastic backing of both bodies.
And as the campaign went on, I became more and more impressed with the courage and honesty of Adi Roche. She showed herself to be a person of passionate and idealistic conviction, and a person of very considerable integrity - qualities she retained to the end of a long and difficult campaign; qualities she will, I believe, always retain. Her only concern, at the end, was that she had let us down in some way. I told her then, and I repeat it today, that nothing could be further from the truth. I believe and hope that Adi Roche has a bright future in front of her, and that she will get many better opportunities to display the true qualities she has.
There will be another time to discuss other aspects of the campaign. For now, suffice it to say that those who worked on the campaign, from three parties and none, gave their all - and they did it out of the same conviction that there is still room for idealism in Ireland. In the end the election was won by the person who was judged best qualified by the people, and we cannot quarrel with that. Indeed, it would be appropriate that at this meeting, we would record our congratulations and full democratic support for President-elect Mary McAleese.
I have been privileged to have been the elected leader of this party for 15 years. When I became leader, the party was in turmoil, following the resignation of Michael O'Leary, and under deep threat. Several commentators at the time wrote that the State's oldest political party was facing near-certain extinction. In the years that followed, the party was riven often by dissent, and many hard battles were fought over its direction. Many of the people who took opposite sides in those battles are still here, in this room. We have learned to work together. And we are, I believe, friends.
Out of the struggles we had, we forged a unity - at first uneasy, but gradually developing into a sense of solidarity with each other, with the party, with our values. Now, 15 years later, we are a united, disciplined, professional, and above all a serious party. Our financial affairs are in reasonable condition. We know how to win. We know how to rebuild from defeat. We know how to discuss ideas rather than personalities. We know how to govern effectively and well.
When I became leader of this party, the financial and economic affairs of this country were in ruins. Irish solutions to Irish problems were the order of the day in relation to virtually every social issue. Those who lived at the margins of our society were forgotten and neglected. They included thousands of young couples without any hope of ever having a home to call their own. They included people who were resigned to totally inadequate education and health services. And the nightmare of the people of Northern Ireland seemed never-ending.
Not all of these conditions improved during the early years that I led this party. Indeed, in the beginning, we spent much of our time on the defensive - trying not to allow social and economic conditions to become worse during a period of essential retrenchment. But, gradually, conditions began to change.
We live in an Ireland now where the prospect of peace and a negotiated lasting settlement of the Northern Ireland conflict is real. Many, if not most, of the social issues that were so immensely divisive have been resolved. Health and housing provision - which will never be perfect - has been radically improved. Education at every level has been transformed.
And in all of that Labour has played a significant role. It is often said nowadays that all politics is centrist and consensual. I don't know if that's entirely true. But I do assert, as a matter of objective fact, that the political centre in Ireland is further to the left than it was 15 years ago. Government programmes largely drafted by the Labour Party, programmes with a substantial emphasis on community provision, have been adopted by virtually every other party in Ireland, and have formed the main thrust of government activity for much of that time. That is no small legacy to leave.
For our part, we have moved to a recognition that a civilised market place can be a useful mechanism for enabling people to exercise choice - although it has never been much of a vehicle for guaranteeing people's rights. We have defended the role of the State, while recognising more and more the need for competition, for consumer protection, and for the provision of efficient and meaningful service.
And politics itself has been transformed. Since I became leader of this party, the culture of Irish politics has undergone a massive transformation. We played our role, and in the process we have contributed a great deal to the changes that have taken place in the increasing accountability of politics.
It is still too easy to forget that politics is not a game - in its essence, it is about the shape and infrastructure of society. Without the willingness of individuals to offer themselves to a career in politics, the changes which have been of such benefit to this country would never have happened. And yet our profession has been allowed, too often, to be the subject of an unfair branding - where the behaviour of some tarnishes the reputation of all. In the reforms which we have pioneered, we have sought to address that issue in a meaningful way.
In short, I believe the last 15 years have been productive ones, for the party, and for the country. I could, I think, present you with a longer list of achievements than almost any other socialist or social democratic party in Europe. But I think it sufficient to say that we have done work to be proud of.
But I do not want to convey any sense that we can be content. The agenda is far from complete.
Ireland, on some statistics, has the largest disparity of wealth of any of the developed countries - the largest gap between high pay and low pay among those at work. Absolute levels of poverty in Ireland are real, in cities and suburbs, in towns and townlands. Access to education is still not good enough. There is still too much secrecy about the way business is done - still no real way of knowing who pulls the strings. There are still power elites in Ireland, brokers of influence in the media, in business, in the professions, who offer no accountability at all to the people.
There is a Celtic Tiger, and it is choking our towns and cities with new and bigger cars. But there are thousands and thousands of families locked out from the benefits of the tiger. There are hundreds of families coping alone with the effects of disability, or infirmity, or stress. There are young people drifting aimlessly in a world of drugs and other forms of abuse and exploitation.
And none of these people, none of these communities, can claim that payback time has arrived for them. Maybe when it has, the agenda will be complete. But not yet - not by a long way.
We too have to rebuild. If we are to take that agenda on, we need a new strength, a new vision, a radical overhaul of our image and organisation. It's not about being popular - it's about being effective. We know how it can be done, because we've done it before. All that work has to be done again, with a fresh beginning and a rededication to the task.
Vision is crucial. We are a party that has always believed in the place of community, in the inter-dependence of people. The new policies we need must be based on a recognition that solutions handed down by a bureaucratic State have become poor substitutes for giving people in their communities the tools to overcome their own problems. There is a real danger that the very idea of community will be allowed to become unfashionable if we don't fight for it.
And we can never forget either that, side by side with the idea of community, our Constitution guarantees a range of personal freedoms. But how real are they? Is it not still the case that in the economic and social area those personal freedoms have not been substantiated or made real for many citizens? Can we really say yet that our abundant economy has given birth to an abundant nation?
For us, the sharing of abundance - the building of a nation that is inclusive - has always been a core value. For us, the substantiation of personal freedom, linked with social responsibility, is the key. We need to do more than the constitutional recognition of economic and social rights. We need to ensure that increasing prosperity is shared, through combined action at neighbourhood and community level, and through political choices.
Some time ago, I proposed that we should seek to develop the concept of a "social guarantee" - a promise to each sector of our people that most fittingly accords with their needs, and with the ability of our economy. I still believe that the needs of many elderly people, many disabled people, many unemployed young people, in our community require us to elaborate and build on this concept.
Vision without organisation is impractical, just as organisation without vision is sterile. In the area of organisation, I have to say that I believe one of the first steps we have to take is to face the need for a realignment on the left. Labour and Democratic Left, for example, are two parties who now share virtually all of the same values. We have learned to put aside old rivalries and to work together - not only in government, but in a co-operative and friendly way in the presidential election, where Proinsias De Rossa and his colleagues played an honourable and significant role. I believe that our two parties should be sitting down together, to seek the synergy and excitement that would come from a much closer relationship based on equal respect for each other.
All of this work, in my view, has to be done in the next few years. We have to be ready to take on new challenges, new agendas, new structures. I still believe that it is possible for the left in Ireland to compete on equal terms with everyone else, and to go on making a difference.
But I also believe that the challenge requires new energy, new commitment, and new enthusiasm. It is for that reason, and no other, that I have come to the decision that the time has come for me to pass the challenge on to fresh leadership.
For 15 years I have done what I can. It has been an honour for me, and I leave this job with nothing but the best memories. I will treasure the friendships I made in this room, and I will remember always that no matter how bitter our battles, we always shared common objectives. I believe that the future of the party is bright, and the challenges are only daunting because they are so worthwhile.
For my part, I will continue to serve the party in whatever way I can in Dail Eireann. I will continue to represent the people of North Kerry to the best of my ability. And I will offer our new leader, whoever he or she might be, my full support, as a loyal and active member of the party I love.