Conciliatory Taoiseach offers olive branch to four renegade TDs
He offered the olive branch to the quartet who resigned the whip and said the parliamentary party, which has seen its numbers dwindle, would welcome back their ex-colleagues. “All of our people who are elected Fianna Fáil TDs, we would all like to have them in our parliamentary party. They have resigned the whip in various circumstances, it is open to them to reapply. And the view of the party generally is that we would like to see them readmitted to the party or applying for readmission, whenever they feel it is appropriate, and we would welcome them,” he said.
The four deputies abandoned the whip since Mr Cowen succeeded Bertie Ahern in May 2008.
