'The world is burning': Eamon Ryan confirms he won't be following Varadkar's resignation

Minister Eamon Ryan has said he will not be following in Leo Varadkar's footsteps and resigning, despite it being 'a healthy [move]' in his opinion. 

He was speaking after Cabinet approved his new ‘Moving Together’ transport strategy, which aims to reduce car dependency while scaling up public transport and the use of electric vehicles.

While Minister Ryan explained that this new strategy is not 'anti-motorist', he did continue by saying that 'the world is burning' and that he has no intention of stepping down from his position in government as a result.

Among the 35 proposals in this new strategy are higher parking fees, carpooling incentives and moves towards congestion charges. It is due to go out for a three-month public consultation in April.

Minister Ryan has also said that he has no plans to follow Leo Varadkar out of politics and has insisted that he is determined to continue the fight against climate change.

“The world is burning,” he said.

“I'm absolutely determined that we do everything we can to try and avoid that and that does drive the Green Party, myself included, to make the changes we need to make.”

Taoiseach Varadkar announced his resignation as Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach just over a week ago, on March 20, saying he no longer felt he was the man fit to lead the government and his party.