Leo Varadkar: Frances Fitzgerald has 'done nothing wrong'

Leo Varadkar said he would not seek Frances Fitzgerald's resignation

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar has said the country's deputy prime minister has done nothing wrong as a crisis that threatens to collapse the Irish government continues.

He said Frances Fitzgerald was an "honourable" politician.

The government is under threat after the main opposition party, Fianna Fáil, tabled a motion of no confidence in Ms Fitzgerald.

The motion came over her handling of a police whistleblower controversy.

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The no confidence motion threatens the confidence-and-supply arrangement in which the Fine Gael-led minority government is supported by Fianna Fáil.

It is due to be debated in the Dáil (Irish parliament) next Tuesday.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said he does not want a general election but that the issue could be resolved if Ms Fitzgerald resigned.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the situation would be resolved if Ms Fitzgerald resigned

Mr Varadkar has said he would support Ms Fitzgerald and hoped that talks with Mr Martin could resolve the issue.

However, the taoiseach (Irish prime minister) added if an election was to happen "it would be better to have it done before Christmas".

On Saturday, he reiterated his backing to the deputy prime minister.

"I think there is a real injustice here in people calling for her to resign in these circumstances," he said.

"I don't want to see a good woman who I think has done enormous service in Irish public life, who has been a real asset to Irish politics, brought down in this way.

"I just don't think it would be fair, I don't think it would be right and I don't think the majority of the Irish people would like that to happen."

He added that he "won't be seeking her resignation, I don't want her to offer it to me".

Ms Fitzgerald was Irish minister for justice during a police whistleblower controversy

Ms Fitzgerald has faced questions in the Dáil about what she knew about what lawyers were going to put to a whistleblower at a commission of enquiry.

In particular, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister) has been questioned over her account of an email she received about the legal strategy of the former Garda (Irish police) commissioner in the case of Sgt Maurice McCabe.

Ms Fitzgerald has recently admitted that she was made aware a year earlier than she had previously stated, that lawyers for the Garda were going to attempt to discredit Sgt McCabe.

The email was initially sent to Ms Fitzgerald in May 2015, but she told the Dáil earlier this week that she could not remember reading it.

Sinn Féin, the country's third largest party, had tabled their own no confidence motion against Ms Fitzgerald on Thursday.