Deputy PM resigns, averting Irish government collapse and snap election

The Irish deputy prime minister, Frances Fitzgerald, is resigning, a move that may save the minority government of Leo Varadkar from collapse and a snap election.

Her position, and that of Varadkar, has come under pressure over her handling of information about the treatment of a police whistleblower.

Fitzgerald informed the Irish cabinet that she would be leaving office on Tuesday, to avoid a snap Christmas election and in turn weaken Varadkar’s position, as he enters crucial Brexit negotiations at the European summit in December, said senior sources in Dublin.

Fianna Fail sources said that once the has left office, the opposition will not proceed with a vote of no confidence, which was tabled for 8pm, which potentially could have brought down Varadkar’s minority government.

The political crisis in Dublin worsened on Monday evening, when documents emerged, appearing to show that Fitzgerald was aware of a proposed smear campaign, against a detective who warned of corruption in the Irish police force.

Documents released from the Irish Department of Justice revealed that Fitzgerald received three emails about senior commanders in the Garda Siochana, drawing up a strategy against the whistleblower.

In two of the emails which were sent to Fitzgerald in July 2015, when she was Ireland’s justice minister, she is advised about an “aggressive” approach being taken by a senior Garda officer, against Sgt Maurice McCabe, the detective who claimed that there was a widespread corruption and malpractice in the force.

The new material also prompted backbenchers in her own Fine Gael party, to call for Fitzgerald to step down from the cabinet, to prevent the no confidence vote and the collapse of the government.