Alan Kelly has stepped down as the leader of the Labour Party.
In a statement on Wednesday evening outside Leinster House, Deputy Kelly said: "I had intended on doing this tomorrow. Tonight, I am resigning as leader of the Labour party. I was advised by my parliamentary colleagues that they had lost collective confidence in my leadership. This was a surprise to me, but I accepted the decision immediately.
"We had a number of frank discussions in recent weeks. I have to acknowledge that we haven't been able to move on from the opinion polls and I have deep regrets about that. We didn't get the bounce we had expected over the last two years.
