Will Fine Gael and Labour back motion of no confidence in Taoiseach?

Ó Caoláin: Looking at Labour and Fine Gael

FINE GAEL AND LABOUR have been urged to back a Sinn Féin motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach, especially after revelations about a previously undisclosed meeting between Brian Cowen and disgraced former Anglo Irish Bank chair Seán Fitzpatrick in July 2008.

The Sinn Féin motion was tabled before the Dáil broke for Christmas.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin also accused the Taoiseach and Social Protection Minister Éamon Ó Cuív of “a sly attempt to muddy the waters” by citing the fact that the Taoiseach had spoken to Ó Caoláin and guests in the Druid’s Glen Hotel at a wedding reception attended by the Sinn Féin Dáil leader.

Deputy Ó Caoláin said:

Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan have repeatedly claimed that they gave all relevant information in their possession to the Dáil at the time of the bank guarantee and subsequently. They have also repeatedly claimed that to their knowledge the crisis at Anglo Irish Bank in 2008 was one of liquidity rather than solvency.

We were not given the full information then or since.

This is further confirmed by the revelation of a meeting between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and the chair of Anglo Irish Bank, Seán Fitzpatrick, in July 2008.

This event, which was not disclosed till now, raises questions for the Fianna Fáil and Green Party Government.

The Sinn Féin Dáil leader continued:

We are expected to believe that this meeting between the head of Government and the head of a corrupt bank which was about to collapse was purely for the purpose of a round of golf and a meal.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan has asked us to stretch credibility further by saying that the Taoiseach was not ‘in anyone’s particular company’.

Did the Taoiseach have a practice of turning up uninvited for golf and dinner?

Prior to the Christmas recess, the Sinn Féin TDs tabled a Dáil motion of no confidence in the Taoiseach and the party has called on Fine Gael and the Labour Party to support that motion and have it debated in Dáil Private Members’ Time this week, Caoimhghín Ó Caolain said.