Taoiseach-to-be becomes leader of Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil’s TDs and senators will gather at a specially convened parliamentary party meeting at 9am to vote for Bertie Ahern’s successor.
Mr Cowen’s election is a formality as he is the sole candidate for the position.
He will effectively serve as Fianna Fáil leader-designate until May 6, when Mr Ahern resigns.
Mr Cowen will then be elected Taoiseach by the Dáil the following day.
Following his elevation to the party leadership today, Mr Cowen will host a press conference at the Royal College of Physicians on Kildare Street, just a few hundred yards from Leinster House.
Speculation is continuing as to the cabinet changes Mr Cowen may make, with most interest on whom he will appoint to succeed him as Tánaiste and Finance Minister. Moving one or more of his senior ministers will in turn create other cabinet vacancies, but any reshuffle is expected to be small.
Justice Minister Brian Lenihan, Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin, Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey and Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan are considered frontrunners.
Mr Cowen has been in politics since 1984, when he won the by-election in Laois-Offaly caused by the death of his father, Bernard Cowen.
A solicitor by training, Brian Cowen was first elevated to cabinet in 1992, when he became Labour Affairs Minister. He went on to hold the Transport, Health and Foreign Affairs portfolios, before being appointed minister for finance in 2004.
Meanwhile, the man who first promoted Mr Cowen to cabinet, Albert Reynolds, yesterday recalled a conversation they shared about the possibility of the Offaly man rising to the position of taoiseach.
The conversation occurred in November 1994, as Mr Reynolds himself was preparing to resign as taoiseach.
“He was with me as I got up to leave the seat in the office of taoiseach,” Mr Reynolds recalled of Mr Cowen. “And I just turned to him and said: ‘I hope I live long enough to see you taking over that seat.’”
According to Mr Reynolds, Mr Cowen responded: “I won’t let you down.”
