Angry ministers round on Greens

ANGRY exchanges in yesterday’s cabinet meeting saw Fianna Fáil ministers round on their Green Party colleagues who were accused of damaging the country and treacherous behaviour for their announcement on Monday that they would pull out of Government.

In what was described as a “stormy cabinet meeting” none of the Fianna Fáil ministers held back in their criticism of Environment Minister John Gormley and Communications Minister Eamon Ryan, according to a senior Government source.

The Green ministers made the announcement on Monday morning that they would pull out of coalition with Fianna Fáil if an election was not held by the end of January.

The Greens were described as political amateurs who had severely impacted the country’s reputation abroad by their announcement at a time when the IMF is in town and the EU is pushing for an early December budget to be passed.

Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin was the only Fianna Fáil minister to publicly criticise the junior coalition partners for their destabilising statement: “It certainly wasn’t expected. I’m not sure that they have shown that they have the best interest of the stability of the country at heart. But we will just work with them now over the next couple of months,” she said.

Another Fianna Fáil minister privately said the Greens had been “naive” in failing to anticipate the fallout from their actions, and claimed the junior coalition partner had acted dangerously by triggering further international uncertainty about Ireland.

Behind the closed doors of yesterday’s cabinet meeting, the Fianna Fáil ministers were said to have “let rip” telling their Green Party colleagues they were “well out of order”.

They were described as amateurs in Government who allowed themselves to be influenced by the erratic behaviour of backbenchers.

A spokesperson for the Green Party in Government said they had “always acted in the national interest” and had “no interest in engaging in any prolonged arguments”.

He described the usual Tuesday morning meeting of Brian Cowen and Green Party leader John Gormley as “businesslike”.