POLITICAL DISPUTE:TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen's behaviour towards Fine Gael is causing "unprecedented" difficulties for the party in keeping its supporters campaigning for a Yes vote, the party has declared.
Mr Cowen said yesterday he was "sorry" if some had taken offence at remarks he made in Portlaoise on Sunday, but he insisted he had not questioned the contribution being made by Fine Gael to the Lisbon campaign when he responded to questions about a Sunday newspaper poll.
Speaking in Portlaoise, Mr Cowen then said that Fianna Fáil was "the most pro-European party" and that support for the treaty was highest amongst Fianna Fáil voters: "And I'm sure the other parties will crank up their campaigns now as well.
He then went on: "We are getting most of our supporters out to support this thing in the hope that colleagues in other parties now can crank up their campaign, which I'm sure they will, to make sure what we see the same level of support from other parties who also obviously have the same vocation to the European ideals we have."
Fine Gael yesterday said that it had faced "a deluge" of calls from party councillors, party members and supporters to the party's headquarters, its Leinster House press office and the party leader Enda Kenny's office.
"We have not seen anything similar. It is a hard sell as it is to separate Lisbon from everything that happened last week, and Mr Cowen's Dáil outburst [ when he said he could silence Mr Kenny if the latter did not control his backbenchers]," said a party spokesman.
"There is no margin in it for Fine Gael. We are supporting the treaty because it is the right thing to do. The stuff at the weekend was the final straw. It certainly doesn't help to motivate anyone," the spokesman continued.
While Fine Gael are bitterly unhappy about Mr Cowen's conduct, and criticisms of its Lisbon campaign, the Taoiseach is also furious, insisting that his Portlaoise comments have been misinterpreted repeatedly since Sunday.
In the Dáil yesterday, the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny repeatedly offered Mr Cowen opportunities to end the row with a simple apology: "We do need co-operation among those supporting the Yes campaign in order to have everybody properly informed about what is in this treaty and how it can equip Europe to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
"From that perspective, the Taoiseach's remarks at the weekend, as reported, have caused a great deal of antagonism and difficulty for people supporting the Yes campaign who are not supporters of Fianna Fáil.
"In the interests of harmony and running a cohesive Yes campaign by all parties that support the treaty, I ask the Taoiseach to withdraw those remarks and clear this matter up," said Mr Kenny.
However, Mr Cowen declined to make an apology: "I do not understand what the issue is for the Leader of the Opposition," he said. "In response to a question I was asked about the opinion poll, I indicated that all the parties that support the referendum intend continuing to ramp up and intensify our campaign over the coming two and a half weeks.
"If people want to seek out offence I suppose they can take it, although I would not offer any offence to anybody - quite the contrary."
He went on: "I have plenty of reasons to have rows with Deputy Kenny on a range of issues, but I have no issue with him on this matter and never had.
"Rather than trying to find offence where none is intended, and none was actually offered, we should just get on with the campaign and proceed. That is the point and any interpretation to the contrary is mistaken."
