Dáil sketch: The confidence motion farce, Michael Healy-Rae's resignation, and the rumours of bust-up
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Healy-Rae TD at Leinster House yesterday.
Government chief whip Mary Butler sat on the steps of the Dáil chamber beside Michael Healy-Rae.
The Independent Kerry TD and, at that stage still junior minister, sat staring straight ahead.
His brother, Danny, who had been missing for a large part of the Government’s confidence motion, had arrived in the chamber several minutes before him. His son, Jackie, was in the public gallery.
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Ms Butler was whispering furiously to Michael Healy-Rae, who continued to look straight ahead, often shaking his head.
She went forward and back to her perch on the step beside the Kerry TD twice more, as junior ministers made contributions to the Government's confidence motion in itself.
Michael Healy-Rae was up next. Butler was back in her seat. At this stage, she must have known what was about to happen.
It came as a shock to every other member of Government in the chamber.
“I have listened to the protesters,” Healy-Rae said. “I have listened to the workers. I have listened to the people of Kerry — the canvassers who soldiered on long days and bad nights with me over the years.”
As he spoke about listening to his family, his staff, and his son, it was clear that Michael Healy-Rae was gone from Government.
The faces of ministers who were in the Dáil chamber fell. None of them had been given a warning that their majority was about to take a hit.
Agriculture minister Martin Heydon looked shaken, as the leader of the regional Independents, Seán Canney, stared at the ground.
Leas-Cheann Comhairle John McGuinness advised Healy-Rae his speaking slot was over. Butler told him his “time was up”.
While there were indications that Danny Healy-Rae would vote no confidence in the Government, his brother going overboard too was a complete bolt from the blue.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris were not in the chamber when it happened, as they had been given no heads-up about what was about to unfold.
The announcement was so unexpected that as he made his way to the Taoiseach’s office to formally hand in his resignation, Martin was on the phone to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney.
Rumours started to circulate of a bust-up between Healy-Rae and the Taoiseach. Some noted that he had called out Martin directly in his speech, explicitly noting how he would be “voting no confidence in the leader of the country”.
While some sources downplayed any sort of row, the rumours continued to spread.
Despite the mic-drop resignation, Healy-Rae’s departure was not the only fiery moment during the two-and-a-half-hour confidence motion.
In fact, the row started before the confidence motion even started.
Labour Party whip Duncan Smith was incredulous over the Government’s decision to cancel Leaders’ Questions. The steam coming out of his ears was replicated on the Sinn Féin benches.
As Ms Butler tried to justify that a confidence motion must take precedence over other business, the opposition started their day of heckling.
“Keep going,” the Taoiseach told her.
As the debate started, Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy, a former president of the Irish Road Haulage Association, reminded the Dáil that a lot more people would be watching, given the events of the past week. There were rules, she reminded them, and she had to implement them.
Obviously, the TDs ignored her.
As the Taoiseach got to his feet to defend his Government, he was largely allowed to speak without interruption.
The Tánaiste, however, was pilloried from start to finish.
As he argued that the Government had taken action to help people with the cost of living, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty told him to “get out of the bubble”.
“I would sit down if I were you,” he said.
“You are embarrassing yourself,” declared Sinn Féin TD Conor D McGuinness.
Mr Canney received a similar reception.
When Mary Lou McDonald got to her feet, junior minister Kevin ‘Boxer’ Moran asked: “Can we start heckling now?”
Despite not receiving tacit permission, the Government benches gave as good as they got.
The furious, often deafening arguments became unedifying as female minister after female minister was shouted down.
When minister of State at the Department of Health Jennifer Murnane-O’Connor made her speech, Independent Ireland TD Ken O’Flynn said that she “does not know what she is talking about” and that the “Government has forgotten the most vulnerable in Ireland”.
Jen Cummins and Aidan Farrelly of the Social Democrats stepped in to ask the Ceann Comhairle to intervene following the remarks.
Ms Butler was also constantly interrupted as she attempted to speak.
After Mr Heydon, the agriculture minister, spoke for two minutes without any input from the opposition, he noted that “bully boys in the corner never said a word when I was speaking, unlike their interventions when my female ministerial colleagues were speaking”.
When Darragh O’Brien accused Mr O’Flynn of being misogynistic, he retorted that Fianna Fáil had been homophobic towards him when he was a member of the party.
The debate ultimately became a farce, with insults thrown between the opposition and Government benches, while discussions about blockades, critical infrastructure, and the country nearly running out of fuel were left in the rear-view mirror.
Outside Leinster House, the boisterousness continued as protesters shouted that the Government could “stick your fucking measures up your arse”.
After finishing his speech, Mr Healy-Rae went out to the protesters and stuck his fist defiantly in the air.
His time in Government was well and truly over.
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