{"id":122329,"date":"2025-10-14T22:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122329\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T22:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T22:32:09","slug":"confidence-vote-in-harris-to-be-pushed-through-to-avoid-presidential-race-disruption-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/122329\/","title":{"rendered":"Confidence vote in Harris to be pushed through to avoid presidential race disruption \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government<\/a> is to force through a vote of confidence in T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> on Wednesday in a bid to defuse the risk of a debate on disabilities during the final week of presidential campaigning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aont\u00fa<\/a> leader Peadar T\u00f3ib\u00edn<\/a> said on Tuesday that his party would next week table a no-confidence motion in Mr Harris over controversies in Children\u2019s Health Ireland<\/a> and waiting times for scoliosis surgery.<\/p>\n

Such a motion is usually replaced by a motion of confidence in a minister put down by the Government.<\/p>\n

Late on Tuesday, party whips were informed that the Coalition will put down a confidence motion in Mr Harris at 1.12pm on Wednesday, with a vote to follow at 3.30pm.<\/p>\n

The move comes amid concern among some in the Coalition that lengthy D\u00e1il debates on the Government\u2019s disabilities record could dominate coverage in the days before the vote for the presidency next Friday.<\/p>\n

Ministers are protected from facing more than one confidence motion in a six-month period.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0How much will Jim Gavin\u2019s failed presidential bid cost Fianna F\u00e1il?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

There is some frustration in the Opposition ranks that Mr T\u00f3ib\u00edn announced his intention to put the motion down on Tuesday, with such motions usually submitted on a Friday for inclusion in the D\u00e1il\u2019s business the following week.<\/p>\n

In so doing, one Opposition TD suggested a gap had been left open which would allow the Government to bring the vote forward. \u201cIf his tactic was to cause them difficulty in the presidential election, he should have waited until Friday,\u201d the TD said.<\/p>\n

The D\u00e1il business committee was informed of the schedule change on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n

However, the Coalition will be moving forward wording of Mr T\u00f3ib\u00edn\u2019s planned no-confidence motion, which does not have to be submitted until Friday.<\/p>\n

While this would not prevent the Government from acting and putting its own motion down, sources suggested Aont\u00fa could change tack and use its D\u00e1il time next week to put down a motion of no confidence in the entire Government rather than Mr Harris as part of a bid to keep disabilities central to the final week of campaigning. Were this done, it would lead to two confidence debates on the same topic in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine Connolly tries her hand at chair exercise during a class while visiting the McAuley Place centre in Naas, Co Kildare while canvassing on Tuesday. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

It comes as Independent candidate Catherine Connolly<\/a> and Fine Gael<\/a> candidate Heather Humphreys<\/a> enter the final 10 days of the campaign, trading blows on the future of the Special Criminal Court and other matters. <\/p>\n

Ms Humphreys came under pressure from the family of Shane O\u2019Farrell, the 23-year-old Monaghan man killed in a hit-and-run in 2011. His mother, Lucia O\u2019Farrell, told RT\u00c9 Radio she was unhappy with extent of the former Cavan-Monaghan TD\u2019s advocacy on behalf of the family, who were seeking support for their campaign seeking justice for their son. <\/p>\n

She said Ms Humphreys did not attend a vigil at Leinster House for Mr O\u2019Farrell, and even though the two women spoke about the case, the then-TD never voted for a public inquiry into the death. Ms Humphreys has said she made representations to ministers following conversations with Ms O\u2019Farrell. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, former Green Party cabinet minister Pippa Hackett has joined her former party colleague Brian Leddin in criticising the party\u2019s strategic direction and backing of Ms Connolly for the presidency. <\/p>\n

Ms Hackett, who unsuccessfully sought the Green Party leadership last year, told The Irish Times she felt the Greens should have \u201cstayed out of it altogether\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Ms Hackett\u2019s criticisms were primarily strategic, she said she shared concerns around Ms Connolly\u2019s positions articulated by Mr Leddin, who has resigned from the party, in an article in The Irish Times<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

However, the party\u2019s former Dublin MEP Ciar\u00e1n Cuffe backed Ms Connolly, saying she was the \u201cbest person\u201d to articulate challenges around climate and housing and the \u201cbest candidate for the job\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think there is strong support for Catherine\u2019s candidacy [within the Green Party]. I will indeed be voting for her and I\u2019ve campaigned for her,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is to force through a vote of confidence in T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris on Wednesday in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,1921,45,18,13,14,553,6,555,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,50,59,44,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-122329","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-catherine-connolly","11":"tag-children-s-health-ireland-chi","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-fine-gael","16":"tag-headlines","17":"tag-heather-humphreys","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-ireland","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-peadar-toibin","26":"tag-presidential-election","27":"tag-simon-harris","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}