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| Irish Government on verge of collapse after motion of no confidence tabled against deputy prime minister | Irish Government on verge of collapse after motion of no confidence tabled against deputy prime minister |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The Irish government could be on the verge of collapse after the party propping it up tabled a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister. | The Irish government could be on the verge of collapse after the party propping it up tabled a motion of no confidence in the deputy prime minister. |
| Opposition party Fianna Fail previously agreed a three-year deal to support Prime Minister Leo Varadkar's government in key votes but the the motion of no confidence against his deputy, Frances Fitzgerald, is seen as a major breach of that deal. | |
| Members of the governing Fine Gael party had previously said such a motion would end the confidence-and-supply deal agreed between the two parties that saw Mr Varadkar lead a minority government. | |
| Without the support of Fianna Fail he is likely to be forced to call a fresh general election just five months into his term in office. Current opinion polls suggest neither of the two MPs would win enough seats to form a majority government. | |
| The controversy over Ms Fitzgerald relates to her handling of a 2015 legal case involving a police whistleblower, Maurice McCabe, when she was the Minister for Justice. She has admitted being aware of attempts to discredit Mr McCabe and failing to act to stop them. | |
| An email discovered earlier in December showed that, contrary to previous claims, Ms Fitzgerald had been informed that lawyers for the Irish police the Garda were planning to try to question Mr McCabe's integrity in order to discredit his claims about police failings. | |
| More follows… | More follows… |