Three outstanding byelections are now more likely to be held next year than this, Taoiseach Brian Cowen indicated today.
The Taoiseach said the “most urgent” issues currently facing the country were the stabilisation of the banking system and the economy.
“I think they will be more likely next year than this given the run-in to the budget and the other issues on banking stability and economic stability [that we have to] deal with,” Mr Cowen said.
The Dail vacancy in Donegal South West, which is Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s constituency, was created by the election of Pat “the Cope” Gallagher to the European Parliament in June last year. Former Fine Gael Dublin South TD George Lee resigned in February this year and former Fianna Fáil minister Martin Cullen stepped down as a TD for Waterford in March for health reasons.
Speaking on RTE's This Week programme, Mr Cowen said the constituents of the three areas would have the opportunity to have byelections. But under the relevant legislation there was "no fixed period" in which they had to be held.
The Government was focused on dealing with “the most urgent issues before us”.
“What the electorate and what the citizens of this country want to see is that we make sure that we maintain stability on the banking and side and on the budgetary and economic side. Then we can deal with those issues in due course.”
Questioned on the narrow majority now held by the Government in the Dail, Mr Cowen said the Government was “absolutely committed” to ensuring it maintained a working majority in the Dail “to do what is necessary by the country”.
On the cost of capitalising Anglo Irish Bank, Mr Cowen said the total figure should be known early next month but he declined to be drawn on numbers.
Mr Cowen said there had been a lot of speculation about what the final figure will be and that this had affected market sentiment.
He said the figure from the Financial Regulator will help the markets to see how the Government is going to manage the situation.
Mr Cowen said people wanted to hear from the competent authority what is the “likely overall figure that is needed to capitalise the bank”.
“The strategy for the bank has been accepted by the competition commissioner and has been well received by the markets.”
Anglo Irish Bank chief executive Mike Aynsley has said he expects the final cost of the bank bailout to be “somewhere between” €25 billion and €28.5 billion under Government’s wind-down plan.
The bank’s earlier estimate of a further €3.5 billion cost – on top of the current cost of €25 billion – for a 10-year wind-down could not be applied to the Government’s plan as Anglo had costed a wind-down under a different scenario, he said.