Ireland’s deputy PM resigns as government on brink of collapse
The IRISH Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald has resigned from government after a scandal leaving it in crisis.
By LAURA MOWAT
Express.co.uk
Tue, Nov 28, 2017
Ms Fitzgerald has been at the centre of a controversy and has faced serious questions at Cabinet over her position.
The deputy Prime Minister was under huge pressure from her own party to resign to avoid a snap election that was hours away from being called.
This morning Ms Fitzgerald said: “I’m resigning by my own volition”.
Sources said she showed very little emotion when she resigned.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar accepted her resignation at the end of a Cabinet meeting this morning.
According to the Irish Times, Mr Varadkar asked Ms Fitzgerald on Monday night to consider her position.
Opposition party Fianna Fail, which has been propping up the Fine Gael minority government, said the deputy prime minister’s refusal to quit would force the country to the polls in December.
The crisis has weakened the Government and damaged trust between Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, which supports the minority Government with a confidence and supply arrangement.
In public, Fitzgerald’s ministerial colleagues backed her.
A snap election would have had a negative impact on Britain’s Brexit negotiations.
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