Irish lawmakers had been due to vote on Tuesday on a no-confidence motion targeting the deputy premier, Frances Fitzgerald, filed by the opposition party Fianna Fáil.
Her position – and that of the prime minister, Leo Varadkar – has come under pressure over her handling of information about the treatment of a police whistleblower.
Fitzgerald told the Irish cabinet she would leave office to avert a snap election, which in turn would weaken Varadkar’s position as he goes into crucial Brexit negotiations at a European summit in December, senior sources in Dublin said.
Fianna Fáil sources told the Guardian that once Fitzgerald has gone from office the opposition will not proceed with a vote of no-confidence it had tabled for 8pm, which had the potential to bring down Varadkar’s minority government.
The political crisis in Dublin deepened when documents emerged that appeared to show Fitzgerald had been aware of a proposed smear campaign against a detective who warned of corruption in the Irish police force.
Documents released on Monday night from the Irish Department of Justice revealed Fitzgerald had received three emails about senior commanders in the Garda Síochána drawing up a strategy against the whistleblower.
In two of the emails 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 there was widespread corruption and malpractice in the force.
The new material has even 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 government collapsing.
The crisis comes at a crucial time for Varadkar’s five-month-old government. EU leaders will decide at a summit on 14-15 December whether there has been enough progress to start discussions over Britain’s future relations with the bloc.
A key barrier to progress is the Irish border. Varadkar is pressing the UK to spell out how it can keep the currently invisible Ireland-Northern Ireland frontier free of customs posts and other barriers when the UK leaves the EU while Ireland remains a member.
The 310-mile (500km) frontier will be the UK’s only land border with an EU country. Any hurdles to the movement of people or goods could have serious implications for the economies on both sides, and for Northern Ireland’s peace process.
