Martin encourages TDs to be frank with under-pressure Cowen

Foreign Affairs Minister Micheál Martin is encouraging Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators to make their views known to the Taoiseach about his leadership, as a series of meetings between Brian Cowen and TDs takes place today and tomorrow.

Brian Cowen will meet any TD who has concerns about his leadership, and then decide "what he believes to be the collective view of the party".

As Minister Martin encouraged TDs to be frank in the communication of their views to the Taoiseach, Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin said the issue of leadership should not be allowed to continue beyond the weekend.

Minister Hanafin has reiterated her comments that the controversy is not helpful. Her comments are seen as a signal that she wants a quick decision by Brian Cowen on what he will do once he has consulted with parliamentary party members today and tomorrow.

The pressure on Brian Cowen comes after further damaging newspaper reports today about the Anglo Irish Bank controversy.

The former Anglo Chief Executive David Drumm has told the Daily Mail that Brian Cowen promised to intervene to get the NTMA to invest substantial state cash in Anglo Irish Bank in 2008. Mr Cowen denies this.

Meanwhile, the Irish Times reports that Anglo chairman Seán Fitzpatrick and chief executive David Drumm lobbied economist Alan Gray, who was at the time a board member of the Central Bank, to help save the bank on the night before the state guarantee.

Mr Gray, who says he told Fitzpatrick and Drumm that the Central Bank was the appropriate channel to make their representations, attended a dinner with the Taoiseach after Mr Cowen's golf game with Sean Fitzpatrick.

Fianna Fáil Wexford councillor Michael Sheehan called for a special national county councillors' forum to "make sure our voice is heard in the debate".