Thread by @gavreilly

Paschal Donohoe channeling Abraham Lincoln: "Sinn Féin do not appeal to the better angels of our nature… they seek to arouse the darker spirits to make their case… a deeply cynical politics they have practiced for too long"

Eoin Ó Broin says the passing of the IMO deal to "a personal friend and political supporter" comes in contrast to SF's unsuccessful attempts to have the Govt formally publish all its interactions with the NAGP

Róisín Shortall says Leo Varadkar "concocted a false narrative, a cock-and-bull story which clearly misrepresented the truth", and that this is a greater error than the original leak

Shortall reading some of Village's *other* material into the record - and how Varadkar, when contacted by someone raising genuine concern about premature deaths in the Irish Air Corps, referred to Cabinet handbook and collective responsibility, and sent the query elsewhere

Shortall, on Varadkar's claim that he was entitled as Taoiseach to share what was hitherto a confidential document: "His Trumpian defence that he was the arbiter of what he was allowed to do is laughable"

FF junior minister Seán Fleming says SF are trying to "turn Dáil Éireann into a reality TV show, the likes of Jerry Springer and Jeremy Kyle" - and that passing the motion would trigger a general election in the midst of a pandemic

Simon Harris says he's worried that Ireland is heading to a culture "where you can't make a mistake without the off-with-their-head brigade demanding resignation" - he says Varadkar came into the Dáil, admitted his error and apologised, and that should be enough

Harris: "The smears and innuendo that are creeping into political life need to stop… there was an undertone in this last week, we all know it, and not one of you called it out… it's wrong…"

Harris concludes addressing SF: "In the week the people of the United States, thank God, rejected the politics of Trumpism, don't you dare try to introduce it in this country"

PBP's Bríd Smith says Eamon Ryan "stooped low" by arguing the climate crisis was justification for voting confidence in Leo Varadkar

Brief interruption to debate where Ceann Comhairle asks RISE's Paul Murphy to withdraw a claim that Varadkar broke the law by sharing the document. Murphy half-revises his claim to say there is reason to think Varadkar breached the Official Secrets Act

The reason the debate is taking place in the Dáil tonight, Joe McHugh says, is because of SF's "old boys network somewhere around a monitor in Belfast tonight"

Corrigendum: the Corruption Offences Act, not the Official Secrets Act

https://twitter.com/gavreilly/status/1326235943469281281

FG junior minister Martin Heydon wonders if SF will use its recent windfall of a £4m bequest to cover the €25,000 cost of having to move the Dáil to the CCD for this evening's vote

SF's Pearse Doherty bluntly tells the Dáil that Varadkar was "caught red-handed" and claims the documents SF has asked to be released don't exist because there was no formal engagement between Govt and NAGP - i.e. because it was an underhand leak

Aontú's Peadar Tóibín says if TDs vote confidence in the Dáil today they give licence to anyone else to act similarly in future; any other govt TD who did the same should otherwise "be out the door without their feet hitting the ground"

(He also asks if Varadkar broke Covid restrictions by having friends over to Farmleigh for drinks during the summer)

Richard Bruton likens SF's motion to a footballer cynically diving in the penalty area, hoping for a red card for their opponent

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill wonders whether the SF figures who resigned over the delayed return of £10k rates payments would have done so if the issue had not been uncovered. (And yes, there's a Bobby Storey mention. 7:13pm.)

Marian Harkin of the independent group accepts the Tánaiste's account. Thomas Pringle of the same independent group doesn't.

Helen McEntee refers to the Bobby Storey funeral, and the event held at a cemetery where Storey was not actually being buried

Varadkar on his feet himself now to close the debate. Starts by restating his apology for his actions; he accepts responsibility; he says the intentions were sound but his actions were not.

Says SF put down the motion to keep the story in the public eye for another week

Varadkar states categorically that the error was his own and that Matt Ó Tuathail was blameless in that regard, though Ó Tuathail had overstated the extent of his influence and acess

Varadkar: Many of the claims made about me [in screengrabs published yesterday] were trumped up or simply made up." Says of the ten 'meetings' with Ó Tuathail he was actually Brussels twice, Barcelona on another, out of Dublin, or otherwise engaged on government business

ℹ️ Dáil votes confidence in Leo Varadkar by 92 votes to 65 - nine independents backing the Govt

The nine independent TDs who supported Leo Varadkar this evening were Cathal Berry, Seán Canney, Michael Fitzmaurice, Peter Fitzpatrick, Marian Harkin, Verona Murphy, Noel Grealish, Michael Lowry and Michael McNamara

The independents who opposed Varadkar were Michael Collins, Catherine Connolly, Danny Healy-Rae, Michael Healy-Rae, Mattie McGrath, Denis Naughten, Carol Nolan, Richard O'Donoghue and Thomas Pringle.

In addition, Joan Collins of Right2Change and Peadar Tóibín of Aontú opposed.

Matt Shanahan (Ind, self-isolating) and John Paul Phelan (FG, recovering from illness) were the only absentees tonight. Full house otherwise.

I mistakenly tweeted earlier that Heather Humphreys was not listed as voting; she is in fact listed as being present