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Irish PM’s future in doubt as party meets

14 January 2011 05:00 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Ministers from Ireland’s ruling Fianna Fail party have asked Prime Minister Brian Cowen to consider his options, a party lawmaker said on Thursday, raising doubts over his position as party leader, APA reports quoting Reuters.
Cowen came under renewed pressure this week when opposition parties accused him of failing to disclose meetings with Anglo Irish Bank’s [AGIB.UL] chairman, including one over a round of golf, months before the scandal-hit bank was nationalised at huge cost.
Fianna Fail hastily rescheduled a meeting of its members of parliament to 1500 GMT from 1200 GMT, prompting speculation that a motion of no confidence could be proposed against Cowen, or that he could be asked to resign as party leader.
"A number of ministers have spoken to him and asked him to look at the options," the Fianna Fail MP, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
Cowen would have to stand down as party leader if he lost a confidence vote, but would remain as caretaker prime minister until a new party leader was chosen and parliament agreed on a successor as prime minister.
With a general election due in the first quarter of the year, one of the two independent MPs who hold the balance of power said he would not support a new nominee.
"As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t support an alternative nominee for Fianna Fail to be taoiseach (prime minister). The only way in which this issue can be dealt with properly is for electorate to vote on a new prime minister in an immediate election," Michael Lowry told Reuters.
Cowen has said he will set a date for the election once the final piece of legislation underpinning Ireland’s harshest budget on record, unveiled in December, is passed next month.
Polls indicate Fianna Fail is almost certain to lose power over its handling of a financial crisis that saw Dublin forced to resort to an 85 billion euro IMF/EU bailout.