Taoiseach faces showdown over FitzPatrick saga

THE Taoiseach faces a bitter Dáil showdown today over his dealings with disgraced Anglo chief Seán FitzPatrick as questions over the credibility of Brian Cowen’s version of events grew along with demands for a Garda intervention into the affair.

The Greens insisted they would continue to prop-up Mr Cowen’s beleaguered administration despite John Gormley questioning the Taoiseach’s handling of the controversy.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore insisted he expected the gardaí to question Mr Cowen about what was discussed at two previously undisclosed meetings with FitzPatrick in the run-up to the €34.3 billion Anglo bailout in September 2008.

Mr Gormley said his party “was not Sherlock Holmes” but had found no evidence of wrongdoing on Mr Cowen’s part regarding the contacts between the Taoiseach and Mr FitzPatrick in March and July 2008.

But when asked whether he thought credible the Taoiseach’s claims that he never discussed Anglo with FitzPatrick during a seven-hour golf trip and dinner at Druid’s Glen in July 2008, Mr Gormley avoided answering.

Mr Gormley indicated the general election would come in March after all the budget measures go through the Dáil, but he did criticise the Taoiseach for not putting his engagements with Mr FitzPatrick in the public domain. “There is no question that when you have an incomplete record, it does give rise to suspicion. We have tried the best we can to establish whether there was any impropriety, and we cannot find any evidence of that,” he said at a terse press conference.

Green Party whip Trevor Sargent signalled the party’s continued support would also depend on how Mr Cowen dealt with Dáil questions arising out of the FitzPatrick affair.

The opposition insists Mr Cowen mislead the Dáil by not informing TDs of the two contacts when pressed on his dealings with Anglo chiefs during the growing financial crisis engulfing the bank in 2008.

Mr Gilmore echoed Fine Gael demands for the gardaí to interview Mr Cowen, saying: “I presume that the Garda will question the Taoiseach about what Mr FitzPatrick said to him. What is quite clear though is that we need to know quite precisely what the Government knew at the time when they provided the blanket bailout for Anglo.”

Sinn Féin’s Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin called Mr Gormley “pathetic”. “There seems to be nothing that Fianna Fáil can do that will prompt the Greens to leave Government,” he said.

However, there was some good news for Mr FitzPatrick, when media tycoon Denis O’Brien made a public show of support for him.