Cowen vows to remain Taoiseach even if FF support collapses

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has insisted he will continue in office even if the public delivers a damning verdict on his leadership in next week’s elections.

The latest opinion poll shows Fianna Fáil on just 20% of the vote, in third place behind Fine Gael and Labour. If that figure does not increase by polling day next Friday, the party would suffer greatly in the local and European elections and two Dáil by-elections. But the Government would remain unaffected, as there is no general election, and Mr Cowen insisted he would stay put even if a devastating outcome suggested the public had lost faith in him.

“I won’t consider my position,” Mr Cowen said yesterday. “I’m in the business of leading a government through the most difficult times we’ve seen in many decades, and we’re determined to do what’s necessary for the country.”

He denied the suggestion that a discontented rump of Fianna Fáil TDs could launch a heave against him if the elections go poorly, denying there were any “maverick” deputies in the party.

“There aren’t maverick TDs in the Fianna Fáil party. The Fianna Fáil parliamentary party is supporting the thousands of volunteers up and down this country in the organisation who are working hard for all our candidates. We have seven days to go, we have a positive campaign to push, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said. Asked if he would be Taoiseach in 12 months’ time, Mr Cowen responded: “Yes, I hope so.”

Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the poll — which showed support for his party at 36% — was proof the public wanted change.

“It reflects very accurately what I’m hearing around the country — that the people want change, and they’re now growing in confidence with the ideas and the plans and the strategies that the Fine Gael party have put forward for the last 18 months, two years, about how you get the country moving again,” he said. But the poll wasn’t all good news for Fine Gael. While it is 13 points ahead of Labour nationally, it is slightly behind the party in Dublin. It shouldn’t affect Fine Gael’s hopes of winning the Dublin South by-election, where its candidate George Lee has created a very strong impression.

But it could spell bad news for its hopes of winning the Dublin Central by-election, where candidate Paschal Donohoe had been the long-time front-runner until the arrival of Labour’s Ivana Bacik into the race.

But Mr Kenny, while admitting Mr Donohoe faced “a massive challenge”, refused to concede the by-election. “I would be confident Paschal Donohoe has the calibre and quality to win the seat but you never presume to adjudicate on what people actually say in their decision,” he said during a canvass in Galway.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore, meanwhile, predicted the elections would result in the biggest political shift in the country since the 1930s.

He predicted his party would make “a very big breakthrough”.