When the Healy-Raes were negotiating the agreement to form the Government, they colourfully cast themselves as the fourth leg of the Coalition stool.<\/p>\n
The Government is still standing, but it has been shorn of that leg after Michael Healy-Rae surprised the D\u00e1il chamber and quit his job as Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture.<\/p>\n
The numbers tell the story; the Government began the day with 94 TDs aligned to it. Now it has 92 after both Healy-Rae brothers returned to the Opposition benches. Eighty-seven is the number required for a D\u00e1il majority.<\/p>\n
There were clues that something was afoot, but they were subtle ones.<\/p>\n
Colleagues spoke of the Kerry TD looking glum from early morning. He had confided in them that the political waters were getting choppy.<\/p>\n
But it was interpreted as a reference to his brother Danny’s imminent departure from the Government ranks.<\/p>\n
Watch: Michael Healy-Rae tells D\u00e1il he will resign as Minister of State<\/p>\n
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Then just after 3.30pm Michael’s son, Jackie, and his sister, Rosemary, walked up the steps to the D\u00e1il’s public gallery.<\/p>\n
Moments later, Chief Whip Mary Butler left her seat in the D\u00e1il chamber and sat on the steps beside Michael Healy-Rae.<\/p>\n
Both looked dejected, and he shrugged his shoulders a few times.<\/p>\n
There is a view offered by someone with a knowledge of the last-minute negotiations outside the D\u00e1il chamber that Michael Healy-Rae was told by the Taoiseach that his job as minister was over, if his brother did not vote confidence in the Government.<\/p>\n
This is something the Kerry TD denies.<\/p>\n
When he stood up and began to speak, his tone was laden with emotion. His ministerial colleague at the Department of Agriculture Timmy Dooley was sitting several seats away.<\/p>\n
Four sentences into the speech he shot a sudden glance in Michael Healy-Rae’s direction, apparent incredulity etched on his face.<\/p>\n
There was a man overboard and his brother was sure to follow.<\/p>\n
Politics is primarily fuelled by local issues, but international events played a major part in this resignation.<\/p>\n
Indeed, he told the D\u00e1il that it was the sight of grown men crying over the cost of diesel that convinced him to ditch his ministerial role.<\/p>\n
There was an accusation too that the leaders in Government were not listening to the people and a claim that Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin was condescending.<\/p>\n
Known for their high functioning political antennae, the Healy-Raes concluded that the fuel protests left them too vulnerable to remain in Government.<\/p>\n
The Government’s \u20ac500 million package announced at the weekend was not enough to alter their thinking.<\/p>\n
Their exit does not bring the house down on the Coalition, but it shows that the rising fuel prices have unleashed a political crisis.<\/p>\n
And there is no end in sight to the greatest energy shock in half a century.<\/p>\n
That makes the road ahead for the Government increasingly challenging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Healy-Raes were negotiating the agreement to form the Government, they colourfully cast themselves as the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-399202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399202","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=399202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}