Cowen remains defiant against rebels

BELEAGUERED Taoiseach Brian Cowen dug in last night as rebels regrouped to try and hound him from power.

As the aftershocks of his botched Cabinet reshuffle stroke continued to smash through the coalition, Mr Cowen faced a surge of anger against him within Fianna Fáil.

Wounded would-be leader Micheál Martin renewed his call for TDs to topple the Taoiseach after many Cowen loyalists privately expressed dismay at the disastrous turn of events.

Labour insisted it wanted to go in for the kill by pressing on with its Dáil showdown motion of no confidence in the Government next week despite the election date now being set for March 11.

The Greens said they would wait until Tuesday to decide how to vote in the matter as a war of words continued to rage between them and Fianna Fáil over their vetoing of the Taoiseach’s attempts to bring in six new Cabinet members.

Mr Cowen warned rebels hoping he would use the weekend to reflect on resigning that he was going nowhere.

“I have the support of my party ... to lead this party into this election and beyond. That is what I intend to do. The authority of my leadership remains,” he said at a British/Irish meeting in Armagh.

The Taoiseach insisted no minister had asked him to stand down following his failure to exert his will on the Government over the proposed reshuffle.

Mr Martin called on party colleagues to reflect again on their support for Mr Cowen in last week’s confidence vote, but again stopped short of launching a full-on leadership challenge.

Former defence minister Willie O’Dea said he would back a new attempt to get rid of Mr Cowen and Cork TD Michael McGrath also renewed calls for the Taoiseach to quit.

Minister of State Conor Lenihan warned that Mr Cowen’s refusal to go could lead to a breakaway New Fianna Fáil party being formed by rebels.

He said Mr Cowen’s attempted reshuffle had “wrecked” the party, but still refused to resign as a minister in protest.

Fine Gael justice spokesman Alan Shatter predicted the Government could “disintegrate” over the weekend as tensions between FF and the Greens force it apart.

Mr Shatter said the Government was severely dysfunctional and in “total meltdown”.

Green leader John Gormley launched another strong attack on the Taoiseach’s failed attempt to reshuffle the Cabinet, branding it “bizarre”.

Veteran FF TD Mary O’Rourke said it was “too late” to try and oust Mr Cowen before the general election.