THE VOTE:AS OF late last night, some 22 Deputies had not publicly declared their position on the motion of confidence in Taoiseach Brian Cowen as leader of Fianna Fáil.
They included three Ministers: Minister for Tourism Mary Hanafin, Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan, and Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern. However, Mr Lenihan is expected to announce today that he will vote in favour of the confidence motion this evening.
Almost half of Fianna Fáil’s TDs have said they will vote confidence in Mr Cowen at the parliamentary party meeting tonight.
Some 35 Deputies have confirmed this either to The Irish Timesduring the course of an extensive survey of its 71 TDs carried out over the weekend and yesterday, or on the public airwaves yesterday.
Last night Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey became the latest member of Cabinet to confirm he would back Mr Cowen. He endorsed Mr Cowen at the Meath West selection convention with a robust speech in his support last night.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin is the only senior Minister to challenge Mr Cowen’s leadership. Two other senior figures in the party, former minister for defence Willie O’Dea and Minister of State Billy Kelleher have also indicated they will vote No when the motion is put to the vote tonight.
Mr Martin’s supporters last night said the vast majority of those who have not declared their postion will vote No. They also said the secret ballot would result in several voting against Mr Cowen even though they have expressed fealty to him in public. Mr Martin said the result would go to the wire.
One of his prominent supporters Ned O’Keeffe said he believed the motion would be decided by “only a handful of votes.”
It is believed a majority of Cork TDs – with the notable exception of the strong Brian Cowen supporter Batt O’Keeffe – will support Mr Martin’s challenge. However, several, including Michael McGrath, Christy O’Sullivan and Michael Ahern, could not be contacted yesterday, or would not state their intentions.
Many of those who told The Irish Timesthey would support Mr Cowen said the leadership challenge had come too close to the election. Some cited confusion among voters if a situation arose where there was a separate Taoiseach and leader of Fianna Fáil.
Several also said that they thought a change of leader would make no material difference to the party.
Deputy Government Chief Whip, John Cregan TD has said he will be supporting Mr Cowen in the confidence debate.
“The Taoiseach Brian Cowen has my full backing and I will be voting in support of him when the confidence vote comes before the parliamentary party meeting,” Deputy Cregan said.
Minister of State Barry Andrews restated his support for Mr Cowen.
“I’ve said all along that I’ll be supporting Brian Cowen so I’ll be voting for the motion of confidence tomorrow evening,” Mr Andrews said.
Two Dublin TDs Daragh O’Brien and Charlie O’Connor siad it was too late, as did Kildare South TD Seán O Fearghail, Brendan Kenneally of Waterford and former Minister Maire Hoctore, who spoke to Tipp FM.
The Kildare North TD Michael Fitzpatrick was one of several TDs who said that constituents were very confused about a separate Taoiseach and a Fianna Fáil leader.
The Meath West TD Johnny Brady said he cleaved to the old Fianna Fáil tradition that the leader must always be respected.
