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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has been warned by Fianna Fail that any more controversies like the Maire Whelan scandal will spark a General Election.

The Opposition’s finance spokesman Michael McGrath said trust between the two parties had been damaged and is threatening the confidence and supply agreement that underpins Government.

He issued a frank warning to Mr Varadkar that any more clashes between the parties will bring the country to the polls.

The threat came as it emerged two Cabinet ministers threatened to walk out over Attorney General Mrs Whelan’s appointment to the Court of Appeal.

Appearing on RTE’s The Week in

Politics, Mr McGrath said: “The trust is definitely damaged.

“At the core of it is the fact the Government proceeded with a judicial appointment that breached the established practice of 22 years.

“They then compounded that in my view by rushing through the formal appointment of Maire Whelan to the Court of Appeal, with the Taoiseach making it known he was available the following morning, the Monday morning, for the formal appointment.

“We can’t afford for any more examples like this to emerge or else inevitably we will be moving towards a General Election if that were to take place. We don’t believe it’s necessary.”

Meanwhile, Junior Minister John Halligan has appeared to confirm that Transport Minister Shane Ross

threatened to quit Cabinet over the appointment – and said he would have followed him out. He told Newstalk: “I did speak to Shane Ross on Sunday afternoon.

“He rang me to say he had been informed that there was an appointment to be made in the Aras the next

morning and the seal of approval would be given.

“He found this unacceptable because he had called for a review which was to be discussed at Cabinet on Tuesday.

“I can’t speak for Shane, but I do know that he was very angry.

“I will say that if Shane Ross had have gone, I’ve great loyalty to him, he’s very good to me. I wouldn’t have left him isolated.”

Mr Halligan then agreed with host Ivan Yates that his story confirmed Mr Ross had threatened to walk.