Ellen Coyne

Yeah, and anyone with enough political sense to be a real contender for the leadership wouldn't want to go into the role now when we've already spent three quarters of a billion on a cost of living package.

That war is going to continue and things are more likely to get tougher now.

for the government before they get better.

So it wouldn't be a good time to take over as Taoiseach anyway for a challenger.

I actually did pick up some criticism from the Fine Gael side of the coalition last week, where people, very senior people, were saying they think that Michael Healy-Ray need not have resigned and should not have resigned, that it doesn't make any sense in a coalition dependent on independence to lose two Healy-Rays when you could only lose one.

Now, obviously, in Kerry, it might not be possible to have Danny outside of government criticising it while Michael is in it.

But I think the fact that as John Lee is reporting, apparently this ultimatum came from the Fianna Fáil side of the coalition.

It was an advisor to the Taoiseach reportedly who put that pressure to Michael Healy-Ray.

One person said to me that it would be the worst of all worlds if Michael Healy-Ray had to vote with the government and then resign anyway, like his political reputation would be in tatters.

So it reads as believable to me that it would be an unpalatable situation and how Healy-Ray would feel that really he had no choice but to resign.

No, but I suppose it wouldn't have escaped the notice of some of the government backbenchers that someone who gets triple a quota, like Michael Healy-Ray or double a quota, felt that there was too much public anger on this.

I think that for a lot of the rural government TDs, the fact that a Healy-Ray would resign over this is probably seen as a clarion call that there is a cohort of the public who may not necessarily have supported the tactics of the protesters, but they certainly supported the sentiment.

And that's not going to go away anytime soon.

Michael Collins, yes, is quoted in the Sunday Times that they're thinking, saying that he thinks that he has 10 Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael councillors.

Now, with those kind of stories, it's best to wait and kind of believe it when you see it.

We've had this from Reform UK as well, claiming that they're always on the precipice of another Labour defection.

But I think that there is a grain of truth there that...

Maybe they don't want to join independent Ireland, but I think there's a lot of anger in Fianna Fáil in particular that there's a constituency there that they would have seen as previously being theirs that is being, well, not eaten away, but nibbled at maybe by AIM2 and independent Ireland.

And that's a concern as well.

Exactly.