Taoiseach: Green Party denied me my coalition rights

TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has continued to express bitterness towards his coalition partners after he was denied the chance to promote six Fianna Fáil TDs to the Cabinet.

He said the Government would continue to do its business but that there was a difference of opinion about whether or not he had asked ministers to resign in the knowledge the Green Party would not support him.

“The authority of my leadership remains but what was involved [on Thursday] was a refusal of the Green Party to support my entitlement and right as I saw it, based on the conventions that apply to coalition Governments, to put my team into the field for the fighting of this next election,” he said.