[GPSCC-chat] Irish Greens to decide on government's fate

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110123/wl_nm/us_ireland_politics
Irish Greens to decide on government's fate
Reuters

By Padraic Halpin Padraic Halpin – 12 mins ago

DUBLIN (Reuters) – Ireland's junior coalition partner, the Greens, will
announce on Sunday whether they will stay in government after Prime
Minister Brian Cowen opted to step down as leader of his party but remain
premier until elections.

The Greens, who hold the balance of power in the lower chamber, will give
a news conference at 1530 GMT (10:30 a.m. EST) after the party's six MPs
spent Saturday and Sunday morning discussing Cowen's move.

Finance Minister Brian Lenihan warned that forcing a general election now,
causing a delay to the final piece of legislation underpinning the 2011
austerity budget, would be dangerous for Ireland.

The budget is a key part of an 85 billion euro ($115 billion) bailout deal
struck with the EU and IMF last year. However, most of the 6 billion euros
of cutbacks and tax increases it introduced are already being implemented.

Cowen made the highly unusual decision to split the leadership of his
Fianna Fail party, the senior coalition partner, and the prime
ministership before the March 11 poll following renewed pressure from
members of his deeply unpopular party.

The Greens, who forced Cowen to bring forward the election date last week,
have repeatedly said they will stay in power until the final piece of
budgetary legislation -- the 2011 Finance Bill -- is passed in the coming
four weeks.

But they threatened to topple the government last Thursday unless Cowen,
buoyed by winning a confidence vote in his party leadership two days
earlier, abandoned an ill-judged attempt to reshuffle his cabinet.

Cowen, who was forced to drop the reshuffle, also said he was staying on
as prime minister to get the budget passed. He faces a heavy defeat in the
election as voters vent their fury about Ireland's economic crisis and the
bailout.

The main opposition parties, which will test Cowen's fragile majority with
parliamentary confidence votes in both him and his government this week,
said the legislation should be rushed through parliament by Friday to
bring forward the poll.

But Lenihan said there would be huge logistical difficulties in passing
the legislation this week.

"Clearly we can discuss whether a shortened period is possible (but) the
idea that the finance bill could be enacted within one week is an
unrealistic one," said Lenihan, who is one of four candidates aiming to
replace Cowen as party leader.

Lenihan also told a news conference that any delay to the finance bill
caused by holding the election before it was passed would be risky. "The
degree of uncertainty that (a delay) would introduce about our funding
arrangements would be very dangerous for the country," he said.

(Additional reporting by Carmel Crimmins; editing by David Stamp)