TAOISEACH BRIAN Cowen will unveil his new cabinet in the Dáil this afternoon and announce the appointment of an extra Green Party junior minister.
Mr Cowen and Green Party leader John Gormley spoke a number of times yesterday and sources in both Government parties said later that agreement on a second junior minister for the Greens had been reached.
Carlow Kilkenny TD Mary White will replace Trevor Sargent as Minister of State for Food while Dún Laoghaire TD Ciarán Cuffe will get the other junior minister post.
Mr Cuffe will not get a “super junior” position with a place at the Cabinet table, initially sought by the Greens, and the party has also agreed to abandon a plan to rotate Mr Cuffe into the Cabinet in place of Mr Gormley.
Minister of State for Fisheries, Tony Killeen, is the strongest favourite for promotion to the Cabinet and is expected to take over the Department of Defence portfolio vacated by Willie O’Dea.
Government Chief Whip Pat Carey and Ministers of State John Curran, Dara Calleary and Conor Lenihan are among those tipped to take over the other Cabinet vacancy created by the resignation of Martin Cullen.
The Taoiseach is expected to keep changes in Cabinet personnel to a minimum. A reconfiguration of some major Government departments is expected as part of the reshuffle but one senior Minister said last night that a new department of economic planning would not be established as the Department of Finance was cool on the idea.
It is expected that some of the major functions of Tánaiste Mary Coughlan’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will be transferred to other departments.
It is widely expected that a new department focused on enterprise and economic development will be created, while the employment division of the department may be divided between the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Education. Government sources said last night that Mr Cowen had kept his cards very close to his chest and most of his Cabinet colleagues had no idea what to expect today.
Mr Cowen insisted yesterday there were “no issues to resolve” with the Green Party and denied he was under pressure from his own party not to concede an extra junior ministry to the Greens.
“There is no pressure in any way. We’ve been having political discussions and we’ll be making our decisions public,” he said.
Asked if issues with the Greens had been resolved, Mr Cowen said: “There are no issues to resolve”. He said any decision about Cabinet appointments was his prerogative.
As President Mary McAleese is out of the country on a state visit to Turkey, the new Ministers will receive their seals of office at Áras an Uachtaráin from the Presidential Commission, which carries out the President’s functions in her absence.
The commission is composed of the Chief Justice, John Murray, the Ceann Comhairle, Séamus Kirk, and the Cathaoirleach of the Seanad, Pat Moylan.