Last night’s motion of confidence in the minister for housing, Eoghan Murphy, failed to pass;  the vote was 53 for, 56 against, and 35 recorded abstentions. One of the reasons that it might have failed is because the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said that a defeat for the government on this would cause a pre-Christmas election.…

   Dr. Theresa Reidy, University College Cork Bye-elections are odd political events. The likelihood of a single vote having an impact on government survival is marginal, even in the relatively tight arithmetic of the current Dáil. And in some way, voters seem to know this. The four bye-elections in Cork North Central, Dublin Fingal, Dublin…