Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte today confirmed he is standing down as party leader with immediate effect.
Pat Rabbitte waves from a car after he stepped down as Labour leader today
Mr Rabbitte (58) said he took responsibility for the outcome of the recent general election, in which his party failed to gain new seats and failed to replace the outgoing government.
Although his tenure as party leader was due to run until October 2008, Mr Rabbitte told a news conference in Dublin that his staying on for another year would only make sense if he intended contesting a second term.
As this was not his intention, he believed the beginning of the lifetime of a new Dáil was the opportune time to elect a new party leader and allow him or her find their feet before local and European elections.
He said that, in national politics, the only cycle that matters is from Dáil to Dáil.
"In the context of the broad historical sweep of general elections since 1922, a Labour Party with 20 seats in Dáil Éireann and six seats in Seanad Éireann represents a creditable performance. In the context of expectations that Labour might break out of its traditional niche, the outcome falls short."
Pat Rabbitte
Deputy leader Liz McManus will now take over at the helm until the party membership elects a successor to Mr Rabbitte, which is expected to take up to two months.
Ms McManus along with former deputy leader Brendan Howlin, Joan Burton, Eamon Gilmore and Róisín Shortall are all likely to be touted as possible candidates.
Reflecting on his party's pact with Fine Gael, Mr Rabbitte said he remained convinced that it was correct to offer the electoral the choice of an "alternative reforming government".
"It was not successful but unsuccessful only by a narrow margin," he said. "Electoral strategy is a tactical consideration only and it would be a mistake in the debate now underway in the party to restrict that debate to electoral strategy," he insisted.
After the May election result, Mr Rabbitte said he would be staying on as leader of the party but accepted it needed to modernise and realise that people's attitudes had changed.
Ahead of the election, Fine Gael and Labour presented a joint platform to the electorate as an alternative government. Between them they gained 71 seats, seven behind Fianna Fáil.
The Labour Party had 21 outgoing TDs and ran 50 candidates in this election, with at least one candidate in every constituency. Three sitting Labour TDs didn't fight the election.
However, the party was confident its incumbents would be returned and targeted half a dozen other seats.
In July, Mr Rabbitte admitted there is a problem with the "Labour brand" and urged his party members to examine their place in Irish politics and society.
Echoing these sentiments today, Mr Rabbitte said: "Whereas the core values of Labour are timeless and immutable, we must accept that Irish society has changed and we must change in how we relate these values to today's electorate."
Labour's deputy leader and health spokeswoman, Liz McManus, paid tribute to her colleague and said the election of a new leader would be "a process of renewal for the party which will be all the stronger because of the substantial legacy of Pat Rabbitte in building the Labour Party to meet new challenges".
Mr Howlin, who is Labour's justice spokesman and a TD for Wexford, today said he was "very surprised" to get a phone call from Mr Rabbitte today signalling his intention to resign with immediate effect.
Speaking on RTÉ radio, Mr Howlin said the job of party leader was a "hugely onerous" position, but one that anybody with ambition in politics would want to lead the party, to shape party policy and the country.
He did not confirm, however, that he would be a candidate and said he had only begun to "take soundings" about the leadership. He confirmed he had received "many" party members telephone him on the matter.
Mr Howlin was among senior party members who opposed Labour's decision to enter into a pre-election pact with Fine Gael.