Dáil to vote on confidence motion in Helen McEntee. Here's how that works
Justice Minister Helen McEntee and the Government as a whole is set to win the confidence motion as it retains a slim majority in the Dáil. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire
On Tuesday afternoon, Justice Minister Helen McEntee will face a motion of confidence after the fallout from the Dublin riots late last month.
Sinn Féin sought to hike the pressure on Ms McEntee by announcing the motion of no-confidence last week, with party leader Mary Lou McDonald saying there has been a lack of leadership from the Justice Minister and the Garda Commissioner.
With this, the Government tabled a motion of confidence in Ms McEntee.
So, how exactly does a confidence motion work and how are we expecting the vote to play out?
The motion itself will kick off at about 3.50pm, with both Government and opposition TDs set to get the opportunity to debate Ms McEntee’s position.
TDs are due to speak in separate blocks, depending on their political affiliation. So, Government TDs will split their overall time, while opposition TDs will split their time depending on their party or grouping.
The speaking blocks themselves are likely to be short, with just two-and-a-half hours allocated for the entire debate.
After the debate is concluded, a vote will immediately be called and TDs will decide whether they have confidence in Ms McEntee.
Any party is permitted to use their Dáil time to table a motion of no confidence in either the Government or a specific member of the Government.
The only exception to this is if a motion of confidence or no confidence has already been debated and voted on by the Dáil in the last six months.
This means that if Ms McEntee survives Tuesday’s confidence vote, no party will be permitted to table another motion of confidence in her until June 2024.
A pairing arrangement is typically used to permit a Government minister or TD to be absent from a vote, due to official travel or illness.
The system itself works by pairing the absent Government TD with an opposition TD, who will then not cast a vote during the division, essentially cancelling one another out.
For this vote, a pairing has been set up between Environment Minister Eamon Ryan and Social Democrats TD Jennifer Whitmore, to allow him to stay at the Cop28 climate conference.
Votes in the Dáil are typically cast electronically, but in the case of a confidence or no confidence motion, they are instead cast orally.
This means the Clerk of the Dáil will carry out a roll call of each political party in alphabetical order, with TDs indicating their vote by calling out ‘Tá’ or ‘Níl’.
The vote also must be taken immediately after the debate is completed, rather than being deferred to a later time of the week.
No. Ms McEntee and the Government as a whole is set to win the confidence motion as it retains a slim majority in the Dáil.
While we’re expecting to see whip-less Green TD Neasa Hourigan vote against the motion, the remaining Government TDs will vote confidence in Ms McEntee.
The Government will be further buoyed by independent TDs, who have previously supported the coalition in confidence motions.
This will have been the third confidence motion the Government has faced since it came to power in 2020, with the last having taken place in March.
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