Taoiseach Brian Cowen has insisted that the controversy over whether the Greens had tacitly or otherwise given him the go-ahead to reshuffle his front bench was now over and that he was “determined” to lead Fianna Fail into the general election in March as a “united party”.
He said in Armagh this afternoon that in the preceding 24 hours that no senior Government Minister had asked him to reconsider his position as Taoiseach and Fianna Fáil leader because of the fallout over his failed attempt to appoint new Ministers.
“There has been controversy about yesterday. Yesterday is past,” he said after a full plenary meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council at its new offices in Armagh.
He said he was “determined” to lead Fianna Fáil into the election. “I think people are now moving on to the election itself,” he added. “Fianna Fáil will fight the election as a united party.”
Mr Cowen said that he not accept, as put to him by reporters, that there was political “chaos” in the South. He defended the Government’s policies and predicted that the latest quarterly figures when published would show that the Republic officially was out of recession.
The Taoiseach said that over the past two-and-a-half years the Government was making decisions that were necessary for Ireland’s future. “I will stand and continue to advocate that we continue along this path of adjustment and make sure we bring back investment and employment by doing the job that is necessary”.
“That capacity was clearly not demonstrable in the Opposition benches throughout that period when there was constant, incessant opposition - the politics of the usual which is no good in the time that we are in and the times that we face.”
Mr Cowen was asked had any senior Government Minister gone to him in the previous 24 hours asking him to consider his position. “No, there hasn’t, of course not. I have the support of my party as confirmed by democratic decision last Tuesday to lead this party in this election and beyond, and that’s what I intend to do,” he said.
He was also asked was it not time for him to stand down given that the Greens blocked him from appointing Ministers. “The authority of my leadership remains. What was involved [yesterday) was a refusal by the Green Party to support my entitlement and right, as I saw it...to decide the Coalition Government, to put my team into the field for the fighting of the next election. I will now do that obviously by the establishment of my own new front bench.”
The Taoiseach added, “I remain as determined as I have always been to ensure that the Fianna Fail party’s participation and contribution to the recovery of this country under our four-year economic plan is put to the people in a fair and impartial way. An election campaign will provide an obligation on all media organisations to enable us to do that.
"I believe if we face into that fight together we can go back and ensure that the good name of this party is not sullied by the misrepresentation and mythology that is being built up by the Opposition by their constant, constant negativity for the prospects of this country achieving a recovery. I remain as determined today about that as I did on the first day of my leadership.”
Mr Cowen said on his way to Armagh today he recalled his first meeting as Taoiseach with the then First Minister the Rev Ian Paisley and Mr McGuinness.
“Having been involved in the political track for many years beforehand it was wonderful to see that we are here two-and-a-half years on with Peter Robinson as First Minister and Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister and that we are sitting down doing the business for our people North and South despite the difficulties that face us, despite all the attacks that have been made on the political process by those who would seek to subvert our democracy or, indeed, those pessimists who under-estimate the capacity and determination of political parties here to make this process work”.
He added, “I believe that that is time not only well spent but it has been an honour to serve during that period and I look forward going to the people for them to decide who will govern our country in the period ahead."
