There was a time when a Dáil defeat for Government would bring the country to the brink of a general election.

Last week, it lost a motion on the fodder crisis and it hardly caused a raised eyebrow outside of the agri media.

Charlie McConalogue’s motion proposed a meal voucher scheme, all balancing payments to be accelerated and low-cost loans to be quickly rolled out. It passed by 86 votes to 50, a strong majority.

The Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesman was supported by his party colleagues and a wide range of TDs. Urban and rural, left and right alike marched through.

The only people who joined Fine Gael in opposing the motion were the aligned independents, although Finian McGrath and Denis Naughten were absent, presumably on ministerial duty. It’s not like it went through the nod – only five Fine Gael TDs failed to vote.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was one of those, although Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was present. So this does hurt to some degree.

Is the minister bound by the outcome of this vote? Charlie McConalogue said that he would be holding the minister to account.

The reality is that it would have been far more damaging had it come six weeks ago, as the crisis was escalating all over the country.

The current Government could theoretically continue for another three years, but an election is expected before that, perhaps this year.

Opinion polls show Fine Gael has a healthy lead on Fianna Fáil, with Sinn Féin the only other party likely to achieve a significant seat haul. The maths of the next Dáil will thus be broadly similar to the current one.

A renewal of the current arrangement, its reversal, with Fianna Fáil in Government supported externally by Fine Gael, or a coalition between either of them and Sinn Féin, are thus the only likely outcomes.

This is not political speculation, it’s simple maths – no other arrangement will have the numbers. Dáil defeats for Government could become an increasingly commonplace event. The question is, will it make our governance stronger or weaker? Only time will tell.