{"id":398765,"date":"2026-04-14T23:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T23:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:39:08","slug":"government-survives-confidence-vote-after-surprise-michael-healy-rae-resignation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/398765\/","title":{"rendered":"Government survives confidence vote after surprise Michael Healy-Rae resignation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Independent Minister of State Micheal Healy-Rae<\/a> took the D\u00e1il<\/a> and the Government by surprise when he announced his resignation during a harsh and vitriolic motion of confidence debate.<\/p>\n

The Government won by a comfortable 92 to 78 votes but the Kerry<\/a> TD\u2019s resignation is the first significant crack in the Coalition\u2019s unity and reduces its support to 92, five above the 87 required for a majority.<\/p>\n

The former independent minister told the D\u00e1il<\/a> he was tendering his resignation and \u201cvoting no confidence in the leader of the country\u201d because \u201cI believe this Government has let the people of Ireland down\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said he had listened to protesters and considered himself a \u201cgauge of the people of rural Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The debate was prompted after Sinn F\u00e9in introduced a motion of no confidence following a week of protest and blockades.<\/p>\n

Opening the debate Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> said the Government had introduced proportionately \u201cthe largest assistance package of any European country\u201d. The closest any country comes is Spain where the support package \u201cis over a quarter smaller\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TaoiseachTaoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin speaking in the D\u00e1il on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Hitting out at the \u201cdestructive\u201d blockades which had gone far beyond previous demonstrations, he said everyone had a right to protest but \u201cnobody has a right to appoint themselves as the voice of the people and to threaten the jobs and livelihoods of many thousands of families\u201d.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> described the Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> motion as a \u201cjust another one of their stunts\u201d.<\/p>\n

They had decided on a no-confidence motion \u201cbefore they ever saw the details of the Government\u2019s package of supports, which is far more comprehensive and strategically responsive than anything they have proposed\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald<\/a> accused the Government of \u201carrogance\u201d, \u201cabandoning the Irish people\u201d, \u201clack of empathy\u201d and \u201clack of judgment\u201d which compounded the chaos on international energy markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou pretended everything was fine while people knew it was anything but that,\u201d she said \u201cadding when ordinary decent people raised their voice you turned your back\u201d and that people know the Government is \u201cout of touch\u201d.<\/p>\n

Labour leader Ivana Bacik described the Government as \u201cworn out\u201d, \u201czoned out\u201d and \u201cincapable of handling crisis situations\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Michael Healy-Rae resignation: Is the Coalition now under threat?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She criticised Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan\u2019s call for an investigation into media coverage of events, saying to laughter, it was a case of \u201cGoodbye Viktor Orb\u00e1n, Hello Patrick O\u2019Donovan\u201d.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats leader Holly Cairns said the State had resources to provide meaningful support but instead \u201cwasted countless billions\u201d and failed to deliver infrastructure.<\/p>\n

The party\u2019s deputy leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan described the Minister for Justice as \u201cGI Jim O\u2019Callaghan\u201d who \u201carrived on the scene thinking he was Rambo\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Minister for Justice paid tribute to garda\u00ed for their professionalism and courage in the past week. He warned that the right to protest \u201cis not unlimited\u201d and said he was concerned about the \u201cunacceptable levels of hatred and vitriol\u201d directed against garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n

Independent Ireland leader Michael Collins told the Government \u201cyou should be ashamed of yourselves\u201d as he accused Ministers of failing to respond to constituents who contacted them weeks ago about the fuel crisis.<\/p>\n

He said the State\u2019s response was a \u201cshambolic disgrace\u201d while party colleague Ken O\u2019Flynn paid tribute to Michael Healy-Rae \u201cfor having backbone\u201d.<\/p>\n

Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon hit out at the opposition for heckling women Ministers as they spoke but remaining silent for male TDs.<\/p>\n

Independent TD Michael Lowry criticised the Government\u2019s response to last week\u2019s protests but condemned Sinn F\u00e9in as the \u201cmost hollow, cynical, destructive political impostors\u201d he had ever seen.<\/p>\n

To angry interventions from Sinn F\u00e9in TDs he said they had nothing to offer \u201conly contrived outrage\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said the party followed its \u201cusual social media\u201d hit list. \u201cPoliticians were named and targeted for the Sinn F\u00e9in army of online bots.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were directed to target, to pile on, and to encourage others to mount verbal assaults\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also criticised Aont\u00fa leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn for egging on frustrated people to \u201charass and intimidate\u201d, by posting the names and numbers of people in the Independent group.<\/p>\n

Late on Tuesday night, the D\u00e1il voted to accept the Government\u2019s \u20ac505 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.<\/p>\n

In a series of votes a majority accepted the package with a final vote of 115 to 52. Sinn F\u00e9in, Independent Ireland, People Before Profit Solidarity, Aont\u00fa and 100% Redress TD Charles Ward voted against the package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Independent Minister of State Micheal Healy-Rae took the D\u00e1il and the Government by surprise when he announced his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16253,15049,5485,37635,171749,21010,61,25919,60,3657,18573,7727,6189,22479,3658,24878,31678,1843,43,6232,17861,70,3415,1419],"class_list":{"0":"post-398765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-aontu","9":"tag-dail-eireann","10":"tag-energy-costs","11":"tag-energy-crisis","12":"tag-fuel-protests","13":"tag-holly-cairns","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-independent-ireland","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-ivana-bacik","18":"tag-jim-ocallaghan","19":"tag-kerry","20":"tag-labour-party","21":"tag-martin-heydon","22":"tag-mary-lou-mcdonald","23":"tag-michael-healy-rae","24":"tag-michael-lowry","25":"tag-micheal-martin","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","28":"tag-peadar-toibin","29":"tag-simon-harris","30":"tag-sinn-fein","31":"tag-social-democrats"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}