Coalition majority at risk as McDaid resigns

THE Government has insisted it can push through the budget despite losing yet another TD who departed with a stinging rebuke to Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

The coalition now has a majority of just three following the resignation of Fianna Fáil TD Jim McDaid, and that includes several TDs who have threatened not to support the budget if health services or welfare payments are cut.

In a letter to the Taoiseach, Mr McDaid claimed the Government had shirked necessary decisions because its primary focus was its own survival rather than the health of the economy.

Citing the letter, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Taoiseach was continuing to “brazen it out” and the Government’s refusal to hold a general election “smacks of cowardice”.

Pointing to the fact that Mr McDaid’s resignation brought to four the number of vacant Dáil seats, Mr Kenny said the number of vacancies now exceeded the Government’s majority.

He claimed this was another “GUBU” situation – the acronym coined after then Taoiseach Charles Haughey described a 1982 controversy involving his government as “grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented”.

The Government had lost all credibility at home and abroad, Mr Kenny said, and the rates demanded by the bond markets to lend money to Ireland demonstrated that.

But Mr Cowen rejected Mr Kenny’s claims, and pointed to the latest Exchequer figures, which showed the tax take broadly in line with Department of Finance projections, as proof that Government budgetary policy was on track.

Mr Cowen insisted the coalition would not abdicate from its duty in laying out a four-year framework to cut the deficit by €15bn.

The Cabinet met twice yesterday to continue its discussions on the framework – expected to be published next week – and the December budget.

The Cabinet will meet again tonight to sign off on the amount to be saved in the budget, with the figure to be made public tomorrow.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan said it was “most unlikely” that the budget would be brought forward from December 7, although Green Party chairman Dan Boyle told the Seanad that “no definitive decision” on the issue had been made.

EU Economic Commissioner Olli Rehn will arrive in Dublin on Monday to discuss the framework and budget with Mr Lenihan.

Mr McDaid’s resignation will make it harder for the Government to pass the budget because, even though he had lost the Fianna Fáil whip after abstaining on a health cut vote in 2008, he had continued to support the coalition in major votes since then.

In his resignation letter to Ceann Comhairle Seamus Kirk yesterday, Mr McDaid said he was stepping down for “purely personal reasons”. But he made clear his dissatisfaction with the Government in the scathing letter sent to the Taoiseach, Tánaiste and Finance Minister last Thursday, in which he criticised the Government and called for a general election.