End PDs with dignity, urges Cannon
On Tuesday night, Mr Cannon met with the other three members of the PD parliamentary party — Health Minister Mary Harney, Deputy Noel Grealish and Senator Fiona O’Malley — and agreed the party had no future.
They were of the collective opinion “that the PDs are no longer politically viable”, Mr Cannon announced after the meeting.
However, while the leadership recommended that the party be dissolved, the final say rests with the 4,000 members.
They will meet at a special conference in October to decide the issue. Though unlikely, it is possible that the members will vote for the party to continue, in which case the leadership would be left in an extremely difficult position.
Mr Cannon indicated he would consider continuing as leader in such an event, but urged members to heed the finality of the message he and the rest of the parliamentary party had delivered on Tuesday night.
“If a decision is taken by the members of the party to continue the party on, and they, the members of the party, five months ago chose me as their leader, I think it would be incumbent on me to seriously consider working with them in doing whatever they decide to achieve,” Mr Cannon told RTÉ Radio.
“But I would hope that they would look upon the decision of the parliamentary party... with the import that it was delivered.”
The position of Health Minister Mary Harney in the Government is one of the issues that would need to be resolved should the party wind up.
It is thought that Ms Harney would continue in government as an independent TD, although she has not commented on her position.
The issue was not discussed at yesterday’s cabinet meeting, a PD spokesman said.
The national executive of the party will meet next week to discuss the arrangements for the October conference.
The spokesman said there would be “quite a bit of logistics” involved and it would most likely not take place until towards the end of October.
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