Updated, 13.13

A Labour spokesman says there is no prospect of one of the party's ministers voting against the government tonight.

That's despite junior minister Aodhan Ó Ríordáin giving a blistering speech in favour of a Sinn Fein call for Travellers to be recognised as an ethnic group.

But the coalition is rejecting the motion, and is instead putting a countermotion which simply notes the matter is being "considered" as part of a new national strategy.

But the junior minister says Ireland will not be a real republic until it recognises all its ethnic groups - and he's been frustrated within government when campaigning for Traveller ethnicity: