Tánaiste supports Cowen's version of events

TÁNAISTE MARY Coughlan has told the Dáil she fully supports the Taoiseach’s version of what happened at the golf outing at Druids Glen in Co Wicklow.

Speaking yesterday morning before Fianna Fáil’s parliamentary party meeting, Ms Coughlan said “the Taoiseach dealt with all these issues in the House yesterday. I fully support his version of what happened and, moreover, others outside of politics have indicated what discussions took place on that occasion.”

She was responding to Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, who asked if the Taoiseach had given her a full account of what happened and if she was happy to accept it. When she said she supported Mr Cowen’s version of events, she added that if Mr Kenny “doesn’t believe the truth, that is a sad reflection on a man who purports to be the next taoiseach”.

Mr Kenny said, however, that Alan Gray, a director of the Central Bank, who attended the function had a “very different view to what” Mr Cowen told the Dáil on Wednesday. “The Taoiseach said he was shooting the breeze, having a chat with people and that it was purely a social evening. Mr Gray was invited to what appeared to be a formal meeting to give his views on job creation, small business, the economy and incentives for employment.”

The Fine Gael leader added that former Anglo chairman Seán FitzPatrick “said publicly on a number of occasions that his favourite source of investment advice was the Financial Times website and the Economist but that for the real McCoy one cannot beat the 19th hole on the golf course.” Ms Coughlan reiterated that “the Taoiseach dealt with this matter yesterday and I will not add to it”.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said “the Taoiseach does not have credibility. He was at a dinner with Anglo Irish Bank and they never discussed the bank. He played golf with the chairman of Anglo Irish Bank and they did not discuss the bank and they had dinner afterwards and discussed lending to small business.”

He also said “we need to have some certainty and clarity about the timetable for the completion of the legislation that arises from the budget”.

He criticised as “pathetic” the increase in proposed legislation for this Dáil session to 21 Bills. But the Tánaiste said the Taoiseach had indicated that “once the Finance Bill was completed in the spring of this year, the dissolution of the House would occur”.

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked “does the Tánaiste still maintain, as she has done in recent days” that the Taoiseach ‘met ‘nobody in particular’ at Druids Glen? None of that is credible.”

He demanded that “the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance come to the House to make final, and full and frank statements on all that was known in the months leading up to the bank guarantee in September 2008.

“That has never been done and we are still in an exercise of extracting in a drip-feed way, critical, salient and important information. Will the Tánaiste ensure that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance will, if not today then in the coming week, come before the Dáil and make a clean breast of all that they knew?”

Fianna Fail TD Seán Power retorted that “you could do that yourself”.