Naughten successor vote poses test for Varadkar

After a dramatic week the Government will face another challenge to secure a vote to appoint a successor to former minister Denis Naughten.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has now vowed to treat the roll-out of rural broadband as his “personal crusade” and has commissioned an audit to ensure the tendering process was not compromised by Mr Naughten’s numerous meetings with businessman David McCourt.

Mr Varadkar has appointed independent management consultant Peter Smyth to carry out this examination of the National Broadband Plan procurement process.

After Mr Naughten’s shock resignation on Thursday, the Taoiseach announced that he would be asking Education Minister Richard Bruton to fill the position on a temporary basis.

Speculation mounted yesterday around who might be appointed communications minister, with minister of state Sean Kyne and chief whip Joe McHugh being put in the mix.

It had been rumoured that former Independent Alliance TD Sean Canney would be brought on board and would be made minister of state in the Department of Communications in exchange for his support.

Speaking in Cavan yesterday morning, Mr Varadkar indicated that he would be announcing the appointments in the coming hours and hoped to hold a vote in the Dáil next Tuesday.

But the Taoiseach admitted that, given the Dáil arithmetic, he now faces a challenge in passing votes, including any Dáil ballot to appoint a minister.

“It is of course a matter of fact that any appointments have to be approved by Cabinet and the Dáil, Cabinet in the case of ministers of state and the Dáil in the case of Cabinet ministers, so the changes can’t happen until Tuesday,” said Mr Varadkar.

“It is a fact that we have lost one or two TDs who were supporting the Government and now are not, or at least aren’t all the time. Notwithstanding that, if you look at the votes in the last couple of weeks, the confidence motion in Minister Murphy, the confidence votes on the budget, we won all of those on secure majorities. Obviously, the next test will be on Tuesday on whether the Dáil is ready to ratify the ministerial appointments that I make,” he said.

Of the 158 Dáil seats, Fine Gael has 49 but the four Independent Alliance ministers along with Katherine Zappone bring them up to 54. However, the key number when considering votes is 57, meaning they will need to heavily rely on a number of other Independent TDs including Sean Canney, Michael Lowry, Noel Grealish, and possibly Michael Harty.

While Mr Naughten yesterday maintained that he told the Taoiseach of all six meetings with Mr McCourt on Wednesday night, Mr Varadkar told the Dáil that he was not informed of three of these gatherings until Thursday morning.

But Mr Varadkar stuck to his own timeline of events claiming that Mr Naughten had “changed his story” a number of times.

“There are three things that nobody disputes: the first is that Denis Naughten changed his story on a number of occasions, the second is that these private dinners with a bidder occurred, and the third is that Denis himself didn’t think it was appropriate that he should continue as minister for communications.

“I think he made the right decision, it is an honourable decision, I don’t believe that he gained from this in anyway. He tells me that the National Broadband Plan was not discussed at any of these meetings or private dinners, but perceptions actually do matter, it’s not just as simple as optics,” said the Taoiseach.