Cowen insists must stay to pass Irish budget

Brian Cowen is uncertain how much time he has left as Ireland’s Prime Minister. He is the number one political casualty of the country’s plea for a massive bailout.

Cowen has been challenging the opposition to let the 2011 budget pass next month before he calls an early election. His banking crisis handling has raised public cries against Cowen, but he has defied calls to quit and is due to unveil an austerity package this Wednesday. Higher taxes are expected, and social spending cuts.

Cowen says first pass the budget then have the election. The opposition, such as Michael Ring with the Fine Gael party, want it the other way.

Ring said: “The simple thing is we need the general election. We’ll have the election before Christmas, a new government formed, we’ll have a budget, and I think it’s the right thing for the country.”

But the faltering government says a budget delay would disrupt rescue loans and harm the country more.

Fianna Fail’s Mary Hanafin, the Irish Tourism Minister, said: “There is only one priority, and that is to get a message to the world, to the international markets, that Ireland is ready to take the very tough decisions that are needed to get the economy back on the road. We’ve set out our timescale on that and we absolutely cannot waiver from it.”

Trade unions warn that austerity moves promise a civic backlash. A tell-tale sign of strain appears spray-painted on the front window of a small town office of Cowen’s Fianna Fail party: the word ‘traitors!’

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