Leo set to survive SF’s no-confidence vote
FF’s MacSharry upset over boss Martin’s defence of FG leader
OUTSPOKEN Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry has reserved judgment on whether he will back the Government in this week’s confidence motion on Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
Mr MacSharry was fiercely critical of the positioning of party leader Micheál Martin and branded his response to the leak controversy a ‘disgrace.’
He said the issue of Mr Varadkar sending a copy of the IMO agreement to a friend in a rival GP organisation was a distraction. He added that he was not at all ‘enamoured by the way the Taoiseach immediately and with enthusiasm leaped to the defence of the Tánaiste and that happened without consultation’.
High-profile FF dissenters will vote for Mr Varadkar
Mr Varadkar will face the motion of no confidence from Sinn Féin this week.
Mr MacSharry, the Sligo-Leitrim TD, said he will not make a final decision on whether he will vote in favour of Mr Varadkar until the Fianna Fáil party considers the matter. He has not said he will vote against Mr Varadkar.
Significantly, other highprofile Fianna Fáil dissenters have stated prior to any parliamentary party meeting that they intend to vote confidence in Mr Varadkar.
It is believed that the Greens Party is also currently on board. Mr MacSharry retains an open mind on the Tánaiste’s behaviour and told his Fianna Fáil colleagues that he was ‘certainly not seeking to have the guillotine set up and in Stephen’s Green for every misdemeanour’.
However, he expressed a lack of confidence in the Tánaiste’s story and said that the Varadkar controversy closely resembled Phil Hogan’s 1995 resignation after the then junior minister leaked a small aspect of the budget to the media.
Mr MacSharry has claimed there is no personality clash between himself and Mr Martin. A Fianna Fáil party source claimed: ‘Even the Greens are behaving themselves. The problem Micheál has is that when you are at 11% in the polls you can’t be leaking TDs. It starts with one and then the tide begins.’
Meanwhile, Mr Varadkar is expected to turn on Sinn Féin in Tuesday’s no confidence motion, senior government sources have claimed.
While Mr Varadkar took a contrite position on the issue of leaks this week, a Government source said: ‘Sinn Féin have made a strategic error in disinterring this nonstory from the crypt.’
A senior party source said: ‘If they want to go on to the high moral ground, we are more than happy to take them on.’