Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin
This evening.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin spoke to Mary Wilson on RTÉ’s Drivetime ahead of a meeting he is expected to hold with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Thursday.
They discussed the confidence and supply agreement that his party shares with Fine Gael and which underpins the Government.
They had this exchange…
Mary Wilson: “If there’s a vote of no confidence put down in the Minister for Health, what will Fianna Fáil do?”
Micheál Martin: “Well, if there’s an agreement to Easter, in our view, there will be no need for such motions of confidence or no confidence.”
Wilson: “But if there is one?”
Martin: “If there’s an agreement, we’ll stand by the agreement…”
Wilson: “So you’ll abstain?”
Martin: “…as we have…”
Wilson: “You’ll abstain?”
Martin: “As we have with all other agreements.”
Wilson: “You’ll abstain?”
Martin: “But I think we’ll have to be in agreement in advance, in my view. Otherwise, everybody is vulnerable to the opportunism that such motions represent. We had one before Christmas, Mary. Everybody knew it was a pre-Christmas stunt. No-one wanted an election on the 28th of December. I’m talking about the motion of no confidence in [Housing Minister] Eoghan Murphy. So I’m not really, I’ve no interest in that type of political stunt-making.
“But what I am interested in is the way to avoid all of that is to have a sensible agreement and others then might follow – Independents and other smaller parties might say ‘you know, that’s reasonable, let’s get four or five important pieces of legislation through…”
Listen back in full here
EARLIER:
Fiach Kelly, in The Irish Times, reports:
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said there is “no question” of his party voting for the Government as requested by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar.
Mr Varadkar has asked Mr Martin to support the Government in some Dáil votes if he wants to secure an election date.
Mr Martin told Newstalk he will not change his approach, setting up a confrontation between the pair at a meeting on Thursday night to discuss the election date and the end of the confidence and supply deal.
The meeting will take place in Dublin although the time and venue have not yet been confirmed.
Micheál Martin says ‘no question’ of his party voting for Government (The Irish Times)
Micheál Martin says ‘no question’ of his party voting for Government (Newstalk)
Listen to the Newstalk interview in full here