{"id":435914,"date":"2026-04-15T07:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/435914\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T07:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T07:12:11","slug":"coalition-suffers-first-major-defection-as-michael-healy-rae-resigns-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/435914\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition suffers first major defection as Michael Healy-Rae resigns \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coalition suffered its first major defection when Independent Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae resigned before voting no confidence in the Government and sharply criticising Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin.<\/p>\n

As the Government sought stability after a bruising week, Kerry TD Healy-Rae blindsided the Coalition with his resignation announcement during a debate on a confidence motion in the Government, going on to vote against his former colleagues. The Government won the vote by 92 votes to 78. <\/p>\n

In the run-up to the vote, expectations in Government were that Healy-Rae\u2019s brother and fellow Kerry TD Danny would be more likely to vote against the Government, but in the minutes leading up to the vote it emerged Michael was about to resign his ministerial position and vote against the Coalition. <\/p>\n

Despite last-minute efforts to sway Healy-Rae by chief whip Mary Butler in the D\u00e1il chamber, he indicated his resignation and charged the Government with having \u201clet the people down\u201d. <\/p>\n

\n

Nobody has a right to appoint themselves as the voice of the people and to threaten the jobs and livelihoods of many thousands of families<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"MichaelMichael Healy Rae salutes protesters after resigning from Government on Tuesday. Picture: Enda O’Dowd. <\/p>\n

Neither Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin nor T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris was aware of his intentions, and when Healy-Rae arrived to Martin\u2019s office to deliver his letter of resignation, the Taoiseach was on a phone call with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n

Speaking outside Leinster House afterwards, the former minister of state said he had spoken with constituents who told him that \u201cthe Government had lost its way, they weren\u2019t listening\u201d. <\/p>\n

There was much speculation that the Kerry TD had been left with little option but to resign in the likely event of his brother voting against the Government in a confidence motion. However, Healy-Rae said he was \u201cabsolutely not\u201d bounced into the decision by his brother. <\/p>\n

Government spokespersons and some Coalition sources acknowledged the blow but sought to project confidence after the resignation, pointing to the substantial margin of victory in the vote.<\/p>\n

\n

A Cabinet minister said the Government had suffered \u2018massive damage\u2019 in the last week<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Tipperary North TD Michael Lowry, around whom Independents supporting the Government have coalesced, also signalled ongoing support for the Government.<\/p>\n

However, there was pessimism among some Ministers and backbenchers, speaking privately on Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n

One Fianna F\u00e1il backbencher spoke of \u201cdespair\u201d in the party, criticising not only the Government and Taoiseach\u2019s handling of the crisis, but also the scale of its first cost-of-living intervention in March, and of last year\u2019s budget that had left people more exposed to a price shock following the war in Iran. <\/p>\n

A Minister said the Government had suffered \u201cmassive damage\u201d in the last week, and that the Healy-Rae resignation compounded things, although they said it was likely to happen at some point. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government ship has been holed, definitely. It\u2019s just a question of how much water it\u2019s going to take on board.\u201d <\/p>\n

While there was criticism of Martin from within his own party, there was no immediate sense that a heave was in the offing. <\/p>\n

Divisions were also evident among the opposition. There were angry exchanges during the debate between Labour and Social Democrat TDs and Independent Ireland deputies, with Independent Ireland TDs accused of barracking women Government deputies. There were also barbed exchanges between Sinn F\u00e9in and Labour and the Social Democrats.<\/p>\n

There was an angry mood on Kildare Street. Some among a protesting crowd with Irish Tricolours abused many people, including Oireachtas staff, leaving Leinster House. <\/p>\n

Earlier, Martin said the Government had introduced proportionately \u201cthe largest assistance package of any European country\u201d. <\/p>\n

\n

Government spokespersons and some Coalition sources acknowledged the blow, but sought to project confidence after the resignation<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Hitting out at blockades, he said everyone had a right to protest, but added that \u201cnobody has a right to appoint themselves as the voice of the people and to threaten the jobs and livelihoods of many thousands of families\u201d.<\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris described the Sinn F\u00e9in motion as \u201cjust another one of their stunts\u201d.<\/p>\n

They had decided on a no-confidence motion \u201cbefore they ever saw the details of the Government\u2019s package of supports\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in leader Mary Lou McDonald accused the Government of \u201carrogance\u201d, \u201cabandoning the Irish people\u201d, \u201clack of empathy\u201d and \u201clack of judgment\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Coalition suffered its first major defection when Independent Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae resigned before voting no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435915,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,49414,18,13,14,189695,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5283,50487,5765,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-435914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-danny-healy-rae","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fuel-protests","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-michael-healy-rae","tag-michael-lowry","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116407484586016432","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435914","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=435914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435915"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}