Reaction as the government wins its confidence vote last night
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Clare Byrne Show on Newstalk.
With Aviva Insurance.
WhatsApp us this morning 087 1400 106 or email the programme clareburn at newstalk.com. Well, the government won its confidence vote last night, but lost a government minister as Michael Healy-Ray announced his resignation. Here was the moment he stepped down.
When I see people begging on the side of the road, when I've seen grown men crying, last night inside the plough bar when I met tractor men, farmers, and when they were telling me how unhappy they were, the leader of the country should have listened. And because of the fact that I believe this government have left the people of Ireland down, I will be voting no confidence in the leader of the country and I will be tendering my resignation as a Minister of State from now.
In a moment, I'll speak to independent TD for Sligo, Leitrim, and Minister of State, Marion Hark, and also disability campaigner, Tracey Carroll. But I'm joined firstly by Newstalk's political correspondent, Sean Defoe. Sean, good morning to you. It seemed as though this was pretty much a complete surprise to the government. So talk us through what we know about how it came about yesterday or what led up to Michael Healy-Ray's resignation.
Yeah, it certainly caught the ministers, the Taoiseach and the Tawnis to all on the hop. You could kind of see a build-up to it happening as Mary Butler, the Chief Whip, consulted with Michael Healy-Ray a number of times yesterday in the Dáil Chamber just before he His speech, and we had all been on alert that Danny Healy-Ray was very likely not to support the government and to vote no confidence.
What was the outcome of the government's confidence vote?
And what seems to have happened, I suppose, there's different versions of events. If you take Michael Healy-Ray's version of events, as he put it to us, first of all, was that obviously he was in these talks over the weekend. He was involved in negotiating the half a billion euro deal. package of supports for hauliers and farmers and the excise cut that was voted through last night. And speaking to ministers who were in that meeting with him and some of those meetings, they said they had no inkling really that he wasn't going to back the government. And that was their impression coming out of it. He'd negotiated the deal and therefore he would vote for it and stick with the government. But Michael himself says that while that was ongoing, he was speaking to people who were on the protest line, speaking to people in Kerry and with his own background, as he would say himself, of
being a digger driver, of a truck driver, of owning a plant hire business, that he had a great deal of sympathy with them and felt that the government wasn't giving enough and wasn't going to give enough to satisfy them. He was also quite critical of Micheál Martin's leadership of the entire thing, but of the government in general, saying he has grave reservations about Micheál Martin as Taoiseach. Now, the other track that was going on here is Danny Healy-Ray. And as we said, the expectation was he wasn't going to vote with the government. There was obviously meetings had within the two sides of the family, the Danny side and Michael's side. And ultimately, there is a feeling that there couldn't be a split in the empire, if you like, that there wasn't going to be a case where the Healy Rays would have one member in and one member out of government and try to campaign on that basis.
This is a A grouping, if not a party, that sends out leaflets with both of their faces on it, joint leaflets telling people in different parts of Kerry what way to vote. Vote number one Danny in this area, vote number one Michael in this area and give your twos accordingly. And that the subsequent split, I suppose, wasn't worth the ultimate damage electorally it could do.
Okay, so let's talk about then how the government looks after this. And in particular, there's a lot of focus on Fianna Fáil, or let's start with Fianna Fáil firstly, because Jim O'Callaghan, as we know, came in for a lot of criticism following his press statement last Thursday about the Defence Forces being ready to help the Gardaí.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–1:44
2
What was the outcome of the government's confidence vote?
1:44–4:15
3
Why did Michael Healy-Ray resign as a government minister?
4:15–7:07
4
What led to the surprise resignation of Michael Healy-Ray?
7:07–17:29
5
How does the resignation impact the government and its leadership?
17:29–18:01
6
What are the implications for Fianna Fáil after the confidence vote?
18:01–22:00
Speakers
5 identifiedMore from The Claire Byrne Show
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