OPPOSITION MOTION:MINISTER FOR Justice Dermot Ahern has said he believes Fianna Fáil still has a mandate to remain in government despite the party's performance in the local elections.
“We have been given a mandate for the two years and we will continue with that mandate as long as we have the confidence of the Oireachtas.
“There is a motion of no confidence this week – opportunistic, I have to say, by Fine Gael – we will face it head on and we have no doubt we will win it.”
He also said he believes the Green Party will not pull out of government.
“The Greens are in for the long haul, they said that themselves. If you listen to even some of their councillors who lost seats, who are not in good humour, they accept that the Greens look at it from a long-term point of view and that they are in government to fulfil their policies.”
He said the Greens had made a difference in government and would continue to make a difference if they stayed, compared to going into opposition.
He also said there was “no issue about Brian Cowen’s leadership. It is about a Government taking hard decisions, unpopular decisions in the interest of the country.
“We don’t have the luxury of looking on how this is impacting on our party.”
Speaking in Dundalk, he said there was no need to have a general election and the people had, “spoken in 2007”.
“We have been given a mandate by the people to fulfil over a five-year period and as long as we get the confidence of the Oireachtas which is the house of the representatives of the people who were put there, we have votes on a daily or weekly basis and we get the majority all the time.”
He said that in 2004 they did not go to the people after the local elections and he is “a firm believer and have always advocated that if we have a mandate should to go to the extremity of the mandate given. I don’t think the Irish people would thank us for going early than originally intended.”