Cowen slams Kenny as O'Dea survives motion

Taoiseach Brian Cowen tonight accused Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny of launching a no confidence motion in Willie O’Dea to prove he was up to being party chief.

In a scathing attack, Mr Cowen questioned the timing of the debate just a week after journalist George Lee’s dramatic exit from politics, suggesting it was a diversion.

Embattled Defence Minister Mr O’Dea, who faces allegations he perjured himself in a sworn statement, survived a Dáil vote by 80 votes to 69 following a heated debate between the Government and opposition.

The Taoiseach asked why the matter was not raised last month, while Mr O’Dea used his speech to poke fun at Mr Kenny.

“So why are we debating it this week?,” Mr Cowen said.

“Is it because of the traumas Deputy Kenny and his party endured last week?

“Is the leader of Fine Gael trying to divert attention from his crisis by foisting a drama on to somebody else?

“Is he tabling motions of no confidence because he is afraid that if he doesn’t another party will and the leader of Fine Gael will be seen as once again being behind the curve?”

Mr Cowen said the debate was a waste of valuable hours at a time when there were more pressing issues to be dealt with.

The Taoiseach said it “owes more to Deputy Kenny’s need to prove to his TDs that he is, in the words of Deputy Coveney, ’up to the job’ than it does to any real concern or reservation about the running and administration of the Department of Defence”.

Mr O’Dea was forced to make a statement to the Dáil on Tuesday night over allegations he perjured himself in a sworn statement.

The Limerick-based TD outlined why he denied in an affidavit that he told a local journalist a Sinn Fein councillor owned a property in the city used as a brothel.

Mr O’Dea said his recollection of what he said in the interview was mistaken, and that he corrected the error when he realised it.

Mr Cowen said he supported his minister and that the controversy had no bearing on his responsibilities in Government.

He also said perjury did not apply and it was despicable to suggest it did.

Mr O’Dea poked fun at Mr Kenny and said the no confidence motion had nothing to do with what he had said regarding the Limerick councillor.

“Rather it has to do with Enda Kenny’s recent declaration to his parliamentary party in the aftermath of the George Lee debacle that ’what I’m going to do now is be myself’.

“All I can say is whoever advised Deputy Kenny to be himself couldn’t have given him worse advice.”

Earlier, Mr Kenny said it beggars belief that anybody could say that a man owns a brothel and then forget it.

He also said Minister O’Dea could not say his actions had no bearing on his Government work.

“You broke it (the law), as deputy, and as minister. You say it’s an honest mistake.

“There is no division between the person I see there as a deputy, as a citizen, as a minister,” Mr Kenny said.

“You are the Holy Trinity in one. You know you’re wrong here.”

Earlier Eamon Ryan gave a chronological account of the events surrounding the controversy and then said the Dail should be debating the issue of the need to create jobs.

But Labour leader Eamon Gilmore later hit out at the Communications Minister and questioned whether there would be anything the Greens would not do to stay in office.