Parties enter talks to hammer out deal on Finance Bill and Election date

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan will enter talks with opposition parties today over the fast-tracking of legislation that will give effect to the Budget and bring forward a General Election.

The Government was left on the brink of collapse after the junior coalition Green Party pulled the plug, blaming a complete breakdown in trust and patience in Fianna Fáil.

The Greens have vowed to support the Finance Bill from the opposition benches and claimed Fine Gael and Labour agreed to ease the passage of the legislation.

Labour has threatened to press ahead with its motion of no confidence in the government tomorrow unless the bill is rushed through by Friday and the Dáil dissolved – meaning voters could go to the polls next month instead of on March 11.

But Mr Cowen and Mr Lenihan have warned the timeframe is unrealistic.

The Taoiseach said: “The important thing now is to have an orderly completion of the Finance Bill in the interests of the country and then obviously we move to a dissolution of the Dáil and a General Election.”

Talks will begin between Department of Finance officials and the opposition finance spokespeople to discuss a timetable for the passage of the legislation through parliament.

Sinn Féin opposes any pact between parties to get the Bill through before an Election, while Independents Michael Lowry and Jackie Healy Rae are due to declare their stance later today.

Meanwhile Mr Cowen has said he has no intention of resigning as Taoiseach and dissolving the Government, instead reassigning the Cabinet positions of Green Party leader John Gormley and communications minister Eamon Ryan.

With six other resignations from Cabinet in the last week, and the Greens stopping them from being filled with new faces, the majority of government ministers are already double-jobbing and two now have three ministerial portfolios.

As his party left government, Mr Gormley said the Irish people had begun to lose confidence in politics and deserved better.

“For a very long time we in the Green Party have stood back in the hope that Fianna Fail could resolve persistent doubts about their party leadership,” he said.

“A definitive resolution of this has not yet been possible. And our patience has reached an end.

“Because of these continuing doubts, the lack of communication and the breakdown in trust, we have decided that we can no longer continue in government.”

Elsewhere nominations for the leadership of Fianna Fáil close at 1pm today, with four senior Fianna Fáil politicians already rounding up support for the race.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin is a front-runner against Mr Lenihan, Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin and Social Protection Minister Eamon O Cuiv.

The new leader of Fianna Fáil – only the eighth since the party was founded in 1926 – will be elected by secret ballot on Wednesday.