Green Party Call For January Dáil Election

The Green Party has called for a General Election to be held in the Irish Republic in January, in the wake of the weekend's acceptance of the bank bailout.

At a specially convened news conference this morning, John Gormley said his party wanted an election in the second half of January next year.

Mr Gilmore suggested his party had discussed removing itself from the coalition, but that leaving the country without a government while matters remained unresolved would be "very damaging and would breach our duty of care".

"But we have now reached a point where the Irish people need political certainty to take them beyond the coming two months. So, we believe it is time to fix a date for a general election in the second half of January 2011."

The Green Party leader said that what was important for the Irish people now was producing a "credible" four-year plan to show the State can make its budgets balance by 2014, delivering a Budget for 2011, and securing funding support from the EU and IMF which will respect vital Irish interests and restore stability to the Euro area.

"We cannot go back and reverse the property bubble and the reckless banking which we consistently spoke opposed. Nor can we control the market turmoil which has afflicted the Euro area.

"We have taken extensive measures to recognise the losses and stabilise our banking system. However, it is now clear we need further measures to give market confidence about our banks and public finances.

Earlier this morning speculation broke that the Green Party would make an announcement on its departure from the Fianna Fail coalition. The Green parliamentary party was reportedly in a meeting to discuss last night's decision of the Cabinet to seek emergency funding from the IMF.

Speculation was sparked by a blog post by UK Green activist who said internal rumours were emerging from within the party in Dublin.

"It is hoped that by bringing the government down the Greens will get some credit from Irish voters," he said.

Ending the coalition would effectively end any outright majority in the house and could spark an election before Christmas, something that almost every opposition party in the Dáil has been recently calling for.

However, the call for an early election is being seen as the Green's last attempt at distancing itself from the bailout in an attempt to retain some support.

(DW)