Ireland's government wins confidence vote

Taoiseach Micheál Martin gave a wide-ranging defence of his administration's performance

The Irish government has comfortably won a vote of confidence.

The three-party coalition had 85 TDs (MPs) vote with them and 66 against.

The motion came about after the government lost its majority in the Dáil (lower house of parliament) after Joe McHugh resigned the Fine Gael whip.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin moved a motion that the Dáil has confidence in the government, prompted by Sinn Féin's plan to present a no-confidence motion later in the evening.

Before the vote, Mr Martin gave a wide-ranging defence of his administration's performance and branded the opposition "cynical and populist".

He welcomed what he called a debate "between those who believe in tackling problems and those who believe in exploiting them".

The governing coalition is made up of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party.

'Out of touch'

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the Dáil that change was needed more than ever, RTÉ reports.

She said the government was "out of touch, clearly out of ideas and now out of time".

Ms McDonald said the government was "coming apart at the seams" and called on it to "go now".

Mary Lou McDonald branded the governing coalition as "out of touch"

Sinn Féin had urged Independent TDs to back its no-confidence motion and to trigger a general election.

The party said the government had failed to deliver on health, housing and had not adequately addressed the rising cost-of-living.

Mr Martin addressed issues ranging from climate change to Covid-19, from hospital beds to the housing crisis, and from the war in Ukraine to the cost-of-living crisis in his statement to the Dáil.

"I am proud of what my party and our partners in government have together helped our country to overcome in the past two years - and the policies we have put in place for sustained, long-term progress," Mr Martin said.

Other opposition parties, including Labour and the Social Democrats, also voted against the government - but enough independents, including former Fine Gael TD Joe McHugh, voted for Mr Martin's motion.