Brian Cowen sounded out every member of the parliamentary party, before concluding yesterday that he would stay on as leader of Fianna Fáil, writes MARY MINIHAN
WHILE BRIAN Cowen insisted yesterday he had given no indication he would resign as leader at any time over the last few days, his demeanour on a number of occasions in recent days made even his closest allies think otherwise.
He sounded out every member of the parliamentary party throughout Friday and Saturday, going further than his personally-devised strategy, announced on Thursday, of inviting TDs and Senators who had a problem with his leadership to speak privately with him.
A text was sent at 8.52pm to members of the parliamentary party on Thursday night by the Fianna Fáil press office inviting them to make an appointment with Mr Cowen if they wished by contacting Nick Reddy, the private secretary in the Taoiseach’s private office.
A number of TDs and Senators had said they did not need to request a conversation with the Taoiseach because they supported him and he knew their position, and some texted him to say so. He called them all anyway.
Many of the 70 conversations were frank. Mr Cowen bluntly told TDs to forget about their personal friendships with him and to tell him if their chances of re-election would be better without him at the head of their party. Some long-term friends told him the views of their constituents might be 50/50 on that point, and one ally who spoke to him on Friday found him “down” as a consequence of these conversations.
Crucially, however, Mr Cowen did not hear anything in those conversations that he had not already heard at the parliamentary party meetings or absorbed from subsequent media coverage. In addition to this, some of those he spoke to told him to fight, further bolstering his resolve.
Mr Cowen continued his consultations on Saturday, when sources said his mood improved and there was “more fight in him”. What bolstered him? “The support he found, that he didn’t necessarily think might have been there, when he actually talked to people. He hadn’t actually had direct, lengthy conversations of that kind for a while,” one TD said.
Mr Cowen’s allies had felt downbeat ahead of Thursday’s meeting, which had been scheduled for noon. Mr Cowen was hearing second-hand that, following revelations about previously undisclosed contacts with Anglo Irish Bank personnel, the parliamentary party’s middle ground was shifting away from him. Rumours were swirling that Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin’s support was growing, and he was prepared to resign the following day.
At 11.15am, TDs and Senators were told the meeting was being postponed until 3pm. Different reasons have been offered for the postponement, but what happened during the delay was significant.
His confidants at Cabinet met Mr Cowen and attempted to boost his confidence, which they felt certain had flagged. Tánaiste and Minister for Education Mary Coughlan, Minister for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe and Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smyth were involved, with Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív and Minister for Defence Tony Killeen on the fringes of the discussions. Chief whip John Curran updated his colleagues with news of assurances of support from the backbenches.
Mr Cowen’s supporters told him if he stepped down he risked being remembered as “the disgraced former taoiseach who floundered over a game of golf with Anglo”, a source said, when in reality he had done nothing wrong.
By yesterday morning, even some of those who were not supporters of Mr Cowen were texting and calling each other to say the last thing the party needed was a change of leader at this point. Mr Cowen had correctly assessed that Fianna Fáil TDs had returned to Dublin from their constituencies after the Christmas break feeling jittery about their futures. Negative poll results, along with the Anglo disclosures, had jangled nerves further.
While even his most loyal supporters would have preferred to know earlier about the contacts with Anglo personnel in 2008, they had never arrived at a point where they were questioning Mr Cowen’s integrity. There was some spinning – not from Mr Cowen himself – against Mr Martin.
One opponent of the Minister derided his perceived prevaricating: “He’s at the end of the diving board, but rather than go into the pool he wants to scurry back down the steps.”
Ms Coughlan’s appearance on the airwaves at lunchtime yesterday had backbenchers attempting to parse her comments. Some seized on her remark that “at this moment in time as I’m speaking to you at the one o’clock news there is no vacancy” as evidence Mr Cowen was set to step down, but wiser heads noted that if Mr Cowen was not going to stay she would have been most unlikely to have appeared on radio. At 2.30pm yesterday, Mr Cowen arrived back at Government Buildings from his Laois-Offaly constituency.
Earlier, Minister of State Seán Haughey had publicly aligned himself with Mr Martin, revealing he had told Mr Cowen he was not communicating with the electorate and people in Dublin did not relate to him. He also described Mr Martin as a “family man” and referred to his “wonderful wife Mary”.
Mr Martin had been “ringing around” on Saturday attempting to assess his levels of support within the party, a number of TDs said. However, a call from Noel O’Flynn (Cork North-Central) for the party to unite behind Mr Martin was not orchestrated by the Minister. Likewise, Ned O’Keeffe (Cork East) was widely considered to have “done his own thing” in coming out in support of Mr Martin.