ACCOUNT OF RESIGNATION:FORMER MINISTER for defence Willie O'Dea said yesterday he decided to resign from office for the good of the country after Taoiseach Brian Cowen explained to him that the Green Party would not support the Government if he stayed in office.
Mr O’Dea denied Mr Cowen had told him that he had to go but had simply pointed out that the Green Party would no longer support the Government if he remained in office, so he proffered his resignation which Mr Cowen accepted.
“I went to speak to the Taoiseach when it became clear that the Green Party would no longer support the Government if I were to stay in Government – I think it would have been disastrous if the Government was to fall.
“We’re right in the middle of a very serious economic crisis and the Government has a specific programme on the public finances and the banking situation and it would be absolutely in the interest of the country that the Government survives.
“So in the interest of the country and to ensure the stability of the Government and allow the Government go on, I offered my resignation to the Taoiseach . . . I offered my resignation in writing and he wrote back to me accepting it.”
Speaking to reporters outside South’s Pub on O’Connell Street in Limerick yesterday afternoon, Mr O’Dea said that he felt no animosity towards the Green Party and predicted the coalition Government would survive the current crisis.
“I have no animosity towards anybody. Politics is politics, it’s a tough game – one day you’re up, one day you’re down, people do things, people make decisions that they have to answer for, bearing animosity is a very arid, unproductive sort of attitude.
“I don’t think it will have any impact on the coalition agreement between the Greens and Fianna Fáil.
“If I had stayed in Government it would have made the continuation of the Government impossible, that was what I was told.
“Obviously the fact that I have left Government has enabled the Government to forward and continue with their programme to rectify the economy and that’s in the interest of the country.”
Mr O’Dea rejected suggestions that he had “disgraced” his office by his actions and said that he had simply made “a small mistake” in passing on information that was incorrect about Sinn Féin local election candidate Maurice Quinlivan.
“I shouldn’t have done that and I paid a very heavy financial penalty for that and now I’ve paid the ultimate political penalty as well. Some people might take the view that the punishment far outweighs the offence.
“I can think of other situations involving Ministers who did far worse and they survived. I remember being in government with one and I never called for his resignation, in fact I defended him in every way possible and what he did was worse.”
Mr O’Dea said that he had made no decision regarding his long-term future in politics and whether he would stand again in the next general election but he did intend seeing out the current term as he had been elected to do.
“I was elected to represent Limerick for five years. I’ve worked very hard to the best of my ability, seven days a week. I’m going to continue to represent them – that’s my present inclination but I haven’t begun thinking about the future in any serious way.”
Mr O’Dea said the decision to go on the RTÉ News at One on Thursday was his own decision as he wished to try and put across his side of what had happened and he had not been pressurised by anyone to do the interview with Seán O’Rourke.
“I felt there was a lot of misrepresentation going on and I wanted to get my side of the story out. Seán O’Rourke, as you know, is a tough interviewer and he certainly puts very hard questions but I answered them to the best of my ability.”
The former minister said: “It’s been incredibly tough – not just the last 24 hours but the last 10 days has been the most enormous strain on myself and my family.”
He added that in the short term he had to deal with a number of practicalities “such as getting driving licences”, and he wouldn’t be holding any constituency clinics in Limerick East this weekend but he promised he would be holding clinics again shortly.