Eoghan Murphy insists Catherine Byrne got ‘no deal’ for vote

Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has insisted Fine Gael colleague Catherine Byrne was not given a deal to spark her U-turn and back him in Tuesday night’s no-confidence motion, despite giving no explanation for her sudden change of heart.

Mr Murphy also denied Ms Byrne was initially planning not to support him in the vote, just 48 hours after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar publicly threatened to sack her if she did so.

Speaking at the launch of the Housing First initiative in Dublin city centre yesterday morning, Mr Murphy was repeatedly asked about Tuesday night’s no-confidence motion against him.

The Sinn Féin motion was defeated by 59 votes to 49 after Fine Gael officials ordered all of the party’s TDs to attend the ballot.

The vote had initially threatened to see junior minister Ms Byrne potentially sacked from her position after sources close to her said she was planning to abstain.

However, after meeting with both Mr Varadkar and Mr Murphy in the lead up to the Dáil showdown, Ms Byrne released a statement shortly before the vote to say Mr Murphy had her support.

Asked if Ms Byrne — who clashed with Mr Murphy over the summer due to his plans for housing in her Dublin city centre constituency — had been given any deal to win her back, Mr Murphy insisted “no deal” was tabled.

The Housing Minister then claimed Ms Byrne was always supportive of his position and, despite the drama of the previous 48 hours, alleged she never planned to vote against him.

No deal, this wasn’t about the motion. Catherine has had concerns about St Michael’s estate since I started talking to her about cost-rental,” he said.

“I still haven’t yet convinced her about all of those merits, I will endeavour to do so, she is a local rep and entitled to raise those issues with me and she balances that with her ministerial responsibilities as well.”

Asked what had changed to convince Ms Byrne to do a U-turn on her initial plan to abstain in the vote, Mr Murphy said “I think you’re making a massive assumption that was never true”.

When it was noted Ms Byrne was planning to abstain, he said: “Catherine saw this was a Sinn Féin stunt, that it wasn’t going to do anything for anyone in her constituency. She supported me as her Government colleague as Minister for Housing, and gave me her support last night in her vote and also with her words.”

Mr Murphy confirmed he “spoke to her yesterday, I spoke to her yesterday evening after we had the debate and before we voted” and insisted they remain “friends in Fine Gael”.

A spokesperson for Mr Varadkar declined to comment on claims that Ms Byrne has received any extra deal either on housing issues in her community or on other matters in her community when contacted by the Irish Examiner.

Similarly, Ms Byrne declined to respond to queries from this newspaper on the same issue.