The Government has won a vote on a motion of confidence in the Dáil by a comfortable majority of 85 to 66 after securing the support of some Independent TDs and deputies who have lost Coalition party whips.
Sinn Féin on Tuesday tabled a motion of no confidence in the Fianna Fáil-Fine Gael-Green Party administration. However, the Government tabled a counter motion of confidence which was carried in the House on Tuesday evening.
Independents Michael Lowry, Cathal Berry, Peter Fitzpatrick and Seán Canney voted with the Government as did Sligo-Leitrim deputy Marc MacSharry, formerly of Fianna Fáil; Neasa Hourigan and Patrick Costello, who lost the Green Party whip earlier this year for supporting an Opposition motion; and Joe McHugh, who is without the Fine Gael whip.
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The Government lost its majority in the Dáil last week after Mr McHugh voted against legislation to give homeowners affected by mica access to an enhanced grant scheme. A majority is 80 votes and the Donegal TD’s departure meant the numbers on the Government benches dropped to 79, prompting Sinn Féin’s motion.
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The Coalition put down a motion of confidence in itself, which superseded the Sinn Féin motion, and was debated in the Dáil on Tuesday afternoon, with a vote taking place afterwards.
Different views
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was “a good time” to have an “honest debate between two very different views”.
“Fundamentally, this is a debate between those who believe in tackling problems and those who believe in exploiting them,” he said.
“It is between those who have an honest and ambitious programme and based on what can be achieved, and those who have taken cynical and populist politics to a new level in our country.
“It is a debate between those who understand and respect diversity and politics and those who have introduced legal threats and online abuse as weapons to silence other members of the Oireachtas and the media.”
Mr Martin said that by “any fair judgment” the Government had served Irish people well on the “critical challenges” posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. He said Ireland had been assessed as one of the top three countries in the world for the resilience of its Covid response and had the second highest vaccination rates in Europe.
He also defended the Government’s progress on housing, health and education and accused Sinn Féin of adopting “anti-EU positions”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said change was needed “now more than ever” and that the Government was “out of touch, clearly out of ideas and now out of time”.
“A Government that is unravelling before our very eyes, you have lost the support of the people if indeed you’ve ever had it,” she said.
“Last week, you lost your Dáil majority. Now Taoiseach, you scramble to get the votes to win a confidence motion. The writing is on the wall for you. This failed Government should go, you should go now and you should make way for a government that will finally put workers and families first.”
‘Housing disaster’
Ms McDonald said the housing crisis had escalated into a “housing disaster” and that the Government had bragged about its latest shared equity scheme, “a vintage Fianna Fáil move if ever there was one”, which was “designed to prop up extortionate house prices and to saddle people with additional debt”.
The Dublin Central TD said “even if the dogs on the streets know that Minister [for Housing] O’Brien has failed abysmally”.
She said it was “farcical” that the Taoiseach was planning to hand “the keys of the Taoiseach’s office” back to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar in December “to carry on as normal”.
“It’s very clear that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power for far too long ... families and workers throughout the land have paid a heavy price for that,” Ms McDonald added.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said there needed to be a change of Government as her party believed “the project of Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party has been unsuccessful”.
“Despite their stated aims, they’re simply not delivering the desired and necessary outcomes or results,” she said.
Publicity stunt
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said the Sinn Féin motion was “deeply cynical”, “nakedly political” and “pointless”.
“The Government has a clear working majority, and that will be evident from the vote tonight and I think, actually, Sinn Féin, often master tacticians, have made a tactical error here because you’ve allowed us to demonstrate tonight that we have a clear working majority, that we will be able to pass a budget and that this Government can and will last full term,” he said.
“We will prove by the votes tonight that there is no prospect of a Sinn Féin-led government this year, next year, the year after and maybe not even the year after that.
“This is a show motion. It’s a publicity stunt, it was designed to get coverage and airtime for Sinn Féin politicians who have no real solutions to the problems that our country faces, just snappy soundbites that tested well with your expensive focus groups. It is a waste of parliamentary time as well.”
