Independent Minister of State Micheal Healy-Rae took the Dáil and the Government by surprise when he announced his resignation during a harsh and vitriolic motion of confidence debate.
The Government won by a comfortable 92 to 78 votes but the Kerry TD’s resignation is the first significant crack in the Coalition’s unity and reduces its support to 92, five above the 87 required for a majority.
The former independent minister told the Dáil he was tendering his resignation and “voting no confidence in the leader of the country” because “I believe this Government has let the people of Ireland down”.
He said he had listened to protesters and considered himself a “gauge of the people of rural Ireland”.
The debate was prompted after Sinn Féin introduced a motion of no confidence following a week of protest and blockades.
Opening the debate Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Government had introduced proportionately “the largest assistance package of any European country”. The closest any country comes is Spain where the support package “is over a quarter smaller”.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin speaking in the Dáil on Tuesday.
Hitting out at the “destructive” blockades which had gone far beyond previous demonstrations, he said everyone had a right to protest but “nobody has a right to appoint themselves as the voice of the people and to threaten the jobs and livelihoods of many thousands of families”.
Tánaiste Simon Harris described the Sinn Féin motion as a “just another one of their stunts”.
They had decided on a no-confidence motion “before they ever saw the details of the Government’s package of supports, which is far more comprehensive and strategically responsive than anything they have proposed”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the Government of “arrogance”, “abandoning the Irish people”, “lack of empathy” and “lack of judgment” which compounded the chaos on international energy markets.
“You pretended everything was fine while people knew it was anything but that,” she said “adding when ordinary decent people raised their voice you turned your back” and that people know the Government is “out of touch”.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the Government as “worn out”, “zoned out” and “incapable of handling crisis situations”.
[ Michael Healy-Rae resignation: Is the Coalition now under threat?Opens in new window ]
She criticised Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan’s call for an investigation into media coverage of events, saying to laughter, it was a case of “Goodbye Viktor Orbán, Hello Patrick O’Donovan”.
Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the State had resources to provide meaningful support but instead “wasted countless billions” and failed to deliver infrastructure.
The party’s deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan described the Minister for Justice as “GI Jim O’Callaghan” who “arrived on the scene thinking he was Rambo”.
The Minister for Justice paid tribute to gardaí for their professionalism and courage in the past week. He warned that the right to protest “is not unlimited” and said he was concerned about the “unacceptable levels of hatred and vitriol” directed against gardaí.
Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins told the Government “you should be ashamed of yourselves” as he accused Ministers of failing to respond to constituents who contacted them weeks ago about the fuel crisis.
He said the State’s response was a “shambolic disgrace” while party colleague Ken O’Flynn paid tribute to Michael Healy-Rae “for having backbone”.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon hit out at the opposition for heckling women Ministers as they spoke but remaining silent for male TDs.
Independent TD Michael Lowry criticised the Government’s response to last week’s protests but condemned Sinn Féin as the “most hollow, cynical, destructive political impostors” he had ever seen.
To angry interventions from Sinn Féin TDs he said they had nothing to offer “only contrived outrage”.
He said the party followed its “usual social media” hit list. “Politicians were named and targeted for the Sinn Féin army of online bots.
“They were directed to target, to pile on, and to encourage others to mount verbal assaults”.
He also criticised Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín for egging on frustrated people to “harass and intimidate”, by posting the names and numbers of people in the Independent group.
Late on Tuesday night, the Dáil voted to accept the Government’s €505 million package of supports including a delay in the increase in the carbon tax until October and further cuts in excise on petrol and diesel.
In a series of votes a majority accepted the package with a final vote of 115 to 52. Sinn Féin, Independent Ireland, People Before Profit Solidarity, Aontú and 100% Redress TD Charles Ward voted against the package.