Sinn Féin tables no confidence motion in Irish government

Mary Lou McDonald said the Irish government was out of touch and out of time

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald has said her party will table a motion of no confidence in the Irish government next week.

The coalition government no longer has a majority of seats in the Dáil (lower house of parliament) after Joe McHugh resigned the Fine Gael whip.

The government now has 79 TDs (MPs), one short of a majority.

Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin said the motion would be an opportunity to lay out achievements.

Mr McHugh resigned the whip over concerns about a scheme for owners of defective homes.

He said he believed the redress scheme for homeowners whose houses have crumbled because of blocks containing pyrite and mica fell short in terms of accessibility and affordability.

Ms McDonald confirmed on Friday that Sinn Féin would push for a vote which would result in the government collapsing if it lost.

"This government has lost its parliamentary majority, failed to tackle the cost of living and housing crises," she added.

"This government is out of touch and out of time.

"We need a government that puts workers and families first."

Ms McDonald told Irish broadcaster RTÉ the government was out of touch in relation to its handling of the redress scheme.

'Unhelpful'

In response, Mr Martin described the move as a "classic sort of strategy" from an opposition party.

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said he expected the government to win the vote and be supported by independent TDs (members of parliament).

"They [Sinn Féin] will want to be as disruptive as they can be. They'll want to try to undermine the government and its position," he told RTÉ.

"That's unhelpful, to put it mildly, given the challenges that the country faces at the moment."

Sinn Féin likely to fall short

By Shane Harrison, BBC News NI Dublin Correspondent

Despite the motion of no confidence in his coalition government, Taoiesach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin is most unlikely to go the way of Boris Johnson.

His three-party government already has the support of 79 of the 159 TDs but has consistently been able to depend on the support of several independents - two in particular.

That is why the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald is appealing to independents to do "the right thing" as she sees it.

But it's an appeal that is likely to fall on deaf ears.

And the drama in Leinster House next week will almost certainly come nowhere near matching that of Westminster this week.

The governing coalition is made up of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, but some independent politicians have also backed it in Dáil votes.

However the independent TD for Clare, Michael McNamara, said he would not back the government in the no confidence vote.

Mr McNamara said the government was failing to tackle the issues that it could control.

Earlier, Ireland's Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar said he was confident Mr McHugh would vote with the government on other issues and therefore it would continue to have a working majority.