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Signs point to Cowen becoming next Irish PM

Irish Finance Minister Brian Cowen, right, grimaces as Prime Minister Bertie Ahern announces his resignation in Dublin on Wednesday. PHOTO: AP

The path quickly cleared on Thursday for Brian Cowen to become Ireland’s next prime minister after the entire Cabinet backed him to replace Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern.

Cabinet heavyweight Cowen, 48, was poised to be the only candidate when nominations for the next leader of Fianna Fail, Ireland’s perennial No. 1 party, close today.

Fianna Fail chief whip Tom Kitt announced that the party’s 77 lawmakers eligible to vote would crown their new leader on Wednesday morning.

If Cowen remains the only candidate as expected, he would be elected in an unrecorded oral vote.

Cowen then would formally replace Ahern when the parliament elects a new prime minister on May 7.

Cowen has been a loyal Ahern lieutenant throughout the past 11 years of his government, and has served since 2004 as both deputy prime minister and finance minister. Cowen has been known as “the anointed one” ever since Ahern declared him his preferred successor 10 months ago.

Cowen’s lock on the top job became apparent as, one by one, more than a dozen Cabinet colleagues declared they would not challenge him. As darkness fell the final holdout, Transport Minister Noel Dempsey, conceded that he also stood no chance against Cowen.

Backers cited Cowen’s exceptionally broad experience as minister atop six government departments since 1992. They credited Cowen as a no-nonsense, straight-talking leader uninterested in pursuing Ahern’s populist style.

On Wednesday, Ahern shocked Ireland by announcing plans to step down as prime minister and party leader. His move followed an 18-month investigation into his 1990s finances that exposed him as the recipient of large amounts of ill-documented cash, some of which he admits came from business friends. He denies that any of the money amounts to bribes.

Ahern spent his first day as a lame-duck prime minister delivering a speech to a University College Dublin conference marking the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday peace accord for Northern Ireland.

Journalists pressed him about why he was quitting now — and whether grueling testimony last month from his former office secretary, Grainne Carruth, had been the tipping point.

Carruth frequently broke down in the stand after denying, then admitting, she had deposited £15,500 (US$30,000) into bank accounts controlled by Ahern and his family in April 1994.

That evidence contradicts Ahern’s insistence that the money Carruth deposited came from his normal monthly paycheck.
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