Keaveney expected to be removed as chair

Rebel Labour TD Colm Keaveney is expected to be removed as party chair over fears he will use his position to create further disunity and undermine the leader, Eamon Gilmore.

The Galway East TD was expelled from the parliamentary party after voting against the Social Welfare Bill giving effect to budget cuts to the children’s allowance and the respite care allowance.

He said he made the decision with a “very heavy heart” and vowed to stay on as chairman of the party — a position he was elected to by the party’s rank and file members at a conference in Galway earlier this year.

However, he is suspected of having attempted to stir dissent among colleagues ahead of yesterday’s crucial vote — with one TD claiming he had suggested a heave against Mr Gilmore.

“If he is going to act as a divisive force then you have to be decisive about what you do about that,” said a senior party source last night, reflecting the belief that Mr Keaveney’s position as chairman is not tenable.

Mr Gilmore told RTÉ News last night: “I don’t think it’s tenable for somebody that is out of the Labour parliamentary party to hold a senior office in the party. But that’s an internal party matter that we will have to deal with in the course of time.”

Mr Keaveney became the fifth Labour TD to break ranks in what was described as by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as a “serious blow” to Mr Gilmore.

His dramatic defection was not expected by colleagues, particularly when Mr Keaveney told RTÉ radio the night before that his instinct would be to support the party and voting against it would be “futile”.

His vote was followed by an emergency meeting of the Labour parliamentary party seen as an attempt to rally the troops.

While at least one further defection — that of Limerick senator James Heffernan — is expected, the Labour TDs last night closed ranks around their leader.

Mr Gilmore issued a statement saying that restoring the country’s economic sovereignty was the party’s “mission” in Government.

He said the budget has been “one of the most difficult tasks that Labour has ever taken on” in its 100-year history.

The party rule book does not allow for the removal of Mr Keaveney as chair.

But a senior party source said Mr Keaveney cannot be “Tadhg an dá thaobh” by behaving as an independent TD to the people of Galway East while also being active in the party as its chair.