Cowen Under Pressure After Fianna Fáil Hits Historic Low In Euro & Local Polls

Taoiseach Brian Cowen found himself under intense political pressure after Fianna Fáil and their ruling coalition partners the Greens were hammered in the local and European elections held last Friday.

Falling to a historic low of just under 25% of first preference votes in the European elections and just over 25% in the local elections, the Taoiseach was fighting an opposition motion of No Confidence in the Dáil on Tuesday, though he was expected to have enough votes to defeat the measure.

European Elections

Of the 12 seats in the European Parliament up for grabs, Fine Gael has won 4, leading the polls with 29.1% of the vote.

Fianna Fáil and the Labour Party were tied with three MEPs and independents picked up the final two.

In Dublin, both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin suffered disappointments when Socialist Party candidate Joe Higgins surprisingly won a European Parliament seat, displacing sitting MEPs Eoin Ryan and Mary Lou McDonald.

Local Elections

Fine Gael won over a third of the vote in the local elections securing 340 seats, compared to Fianna Fáil's 218.

Labour outperformed expectations securing 132 seats, Sinn Féin kept 54 while the Greens were decimated in the polls and only managed to hang onto three seats.

Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's brother Maurice was defeated in the Dublin Central bye-election and later conceded that he has lost his city council seat too.

A Bad Day For The Green Party

Fianna Fáil's coalition partners, the Green Party lost all of their city and county council seats in Dublin where they normally attract the most support and failed to pick up a single seat in the European Parliament.

Enda Kenny Is The Big Winner

Fine Gael's Enda Kenny was delighted with his party's showing in the elections but, when asked whether he would accept the Greens into a new coalition with his party and Labour, ruled any such deal out unless and until a General Election was held in Ireland: "It's up to the Greens to decide what they want to do, but there won't be any rainbow coalition formed without a general election - the people want an election and they showed that by voting no-confidence in the Government by almost 73 per cent on Friday.

"Our motion of no-confidence reflects that and my deep-rooted belief for a very long time - I said it the day that Brian Cowen was appointed Taoiseach that he should have sought a mandate from the people; he didn't do it and now it's in tatters."

He also seemed to play down a pre-election pact between Fine Gael and the Labour Party, saying: "The Labour Party have ruled out that for quite a long time, and I'm happy that Fine Gael will pursue its own agenda here and its own policy decisions, and we will continue with those in the length of time ahead."

He did however note that while the two parties disagreed on some areas of policy, there were many issues on which the they held the same positions and said that, "On the last occasion where Fine Gael had a pre-election arrangement with Labour we did agree a whole series of economic measures and taxation issues which were quite difficult to resolve and they were resolved, and the same applied in the 1990s and in the 1980s and in the 1970s.

"I'm not saying that's the outcome of what you would have here. Both parties are going to go into a general election with their own individual platform, and we're happy to do that from our point of view and to focus on the constituencies where we expect to make gains."

Sinn Féin Are The Winners In The North

Sinn Féin's Bairbre de Brun was the winner of the popular vote in the European Parliament elections in the North.

Breaking the thirty-year old DUP record, Ms de Brun received 126,184 votes and was the only candidate to be selected on the first count.

Jim Nicholson of the new coalition Ulster Conservatives and Unionists party was the second MEP to be selected with the DUP's Diane Dodds taking the final seat.

The DUP suffered particularly badly in these European elections falling from 32% of the first preference vote in 2004 to just 18.2% this time around.

The DUP vote seemed to be directly transfered to the TUV's Jim Allister, who had broken from the party after it decided to power-share with Sinn Féin.

Jim Nicholson, who stood on the new Ulster Conservatives and Unionists ticket, said he was very delighted with his and the party's success: "We have done it, the Ulster Conservative and Unionist Party is back and we're back in style.

"Things are changing, they're changing our way. We're on our way back and that's good. And we feel good today."

Ganley Quits

After conceding that he would not secure a seat in the North West constituency Libertas' Declan Ganley said that he would now "bow out of political life."

After the party's poor showing in Ireland and elsewhere, he also said he would not be involved in the second Lisbon referendum, and that it was uncertain whether Libertas would be involved in the referendum at all.

"I don't have any regrets. I think it was the right thing to do, to go and seek a mandate. I think it was appropriate," he said.

"The people of Ireland North West, I applied to them for a job. I didn"t pass the application."