Michael Healy-Rae, one of several independent TDs who backed the formation of the coalition government with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, said he will vote against the Government in Tuesday’s confidence motion over the fuel crisis.
Healy-Rae also announced his resignation as Minister of State with responsibility for forestry, farm safety and horticulture in the Department of Agriculture.
He had supported the Government’s formation along with his brother Danny Healy-Rae, the two independent TDs for Kerry.
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The outgoing minister said he had listened to protesters and canvassers as he thanked his family, friends and constituency workers.
He told the Dáil he had always seen himself as a gauge of the people of rural Ireland, and he genuinely believed that he was.
When he saw people standing on the side of the road, grown men crying, and when he met tractor drivers, lorry drivers and farmers who told him how unhappy they were, the leader of the country should have listened, he said.
Because he believed the Government had let the people of Ireland down, he would be voting no confidence in the leader of the country and tendering his resignation as Minister of State with immediate effect.
He urged both this Government and future governments to listen, to be kind and to be understanding.
He added that there are farmers suffering greatly at present, along with agricultural contractors who are also in real difficulty.
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