BBC – The Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar will step down party leader immediately and will resign as taoiseach as soon as his Fine Gael successor is selected.
Announcing his resignation, Mr Varadkar described leading his country as “the most fulfilling time of my life”.
He became Ireland’s youngest PM in 2017 when he became Fine Gael leader.
He currently leads the coalition government in Dublin, along with Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.
In the Irish general election of 2020 Mr Varadkar led his party to a third-place finish in terms of number of seats in Dáil Éireann, the lower house in the country’s parliament.
As part of the coalition deal struck between the parties it was agreed that Mr Varadkar and Micheál Martin would hold the position of taoiseach for two years each.
In 2020 Mr Martin was appointed taoiseach with Mr Varadkar serving as his Tánaiste (deputy PM), before the two swapped roles in 2022.
