Rising to his feet from the government benches, Healy-Rae said he’d spent Monday night talking to aggrieved voters in the Plough Bar in his County Kerry constituency — and had come away persuaded he should stop supporting Martin.
“I met tractor men, lorry men, farmers, telling me how unhappy they were. The leader of the country should have listened,” Healy-Rae told a hushed chamber.
“Because I believe this government have let the people of Ireland down, I will be voting no confidence in the leader of the country, and I will be tendering my resignation as a minister of state from now,” he said.
Healy-Rae accused the government of lacking sympathy for farmers and truckers struggling to pay runaway diesel prices. “People cried at the protests — and they were workers! They were respectable people!” he shouted.
He then exited the Leinster House parliamentary building to cheers from the hundreds of fuel-price protesters, mostly middle-aged men, who had gathered outside behind security barriers.
Healy-Rae — who invariably dons an Irish flat cap — is the scion of one of Ireland’s most cunning and colorful political families, profiled by POLITICO back in 2020.
He opted to quit government despite Martin’s announcement Sunday night of an extra €505 million package to reduce the cost of gasoline and diesel. The emergency legislation is expected to be approved Tuesday night.