By Andras Gergely
DUBLIN, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Ireland's Green Party voted on Saturday in favour of staying in power, removing the risk of a snap election that would have scuppered a 'bad bank' plan to revive the financial system and held up urgent fiscal surgery.
Members of the leftwing party voted 84 percent to 16 percent in favour of a new programme for government that will see them continue to support Prime Minister Brian Cowen's administration as it seeks to revive the worst-performing economy in western Europe.
Members also dismissed by 69-31 percent a motion calling for the party to reject Cowen's plan to create a National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to remove risky commercial property loans with a nominal value of 77 billion euros ($113 billion) off the books of its banks.
The thumbs up from the Greens is a major relief for investors in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks , who are relying on NAMA to draw a line under doubts about the lenders' future following the credit crunch and a devastating local property crash.
The Greens, who wrung concessions including a windfall tax on property speculation from Cowen on the NAMA legislation, will now support the law in parliament and it could be passed next month.
The Green vote is a reprieve for Cowen's Fianna Fail party, which would almost certainly have been banished to the opposition benches following a general election and for Cowen himself, who would have faced calls to resign as party leader if the Green votes had gone the other way.
Only last week he scored a major victory in getting the European Union's reform treaty ratified in a referendum but Cowen faces his toughest challenge over the new couple of months in persuading backbenchers to agree to yet another austerity budget.
The 49 year old has promised Brussels he will get the country's deficit, proportionately the worst in the euro zone, under control by 2013 and he needs to start cutting politically sensitive areas of spending to make that happen.
(Reporting by Andras Gergely; editing by Carmel Crimmins) ($1=.6782 Euro) Keywords: IRELAND POLITICS/ (carmel.crimmins@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: carmel.crimmins.reuters.com@reuters.net; +353 1 500 1529) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
DUBLIN, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Ireland's Green Party voted on Saturday in favour of staying in power, removing the risk of a snap election that would have scuppered a 'bad bank' plan to revive the financial system and held up urgent fiscal surgery.
Members of the leftwing party voted 84 percent to 16 percent in favour of a new programme for government that will see them continue to support Prime Minister Brian Cowen's administration as it seeks to revive the worst-performing economy in western Europe.
Members also dismissed by 69-31 percent a motion calling for the party to reject Cowen's plan to create a National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) to remove risky commercial property loans with a nominal value of 77 billion euros ($113 billion) off the books of its banks.
The thumbs up from the Greens is a major relief for investors in Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Banks , who are relying on NAMA to draw a line under doubts about the lenders' future following the credit crunch and a devastating local property crash.
The Greens, who wrung concessions including a windfall tax on property speculation from Cowen on the NAMA legislation, will now support the law in parliament and it could be passed next month.
The Green vote is a reprieve for Cowen's Fianna Fail party, which would almost certainly have been banished to the opposition benches following a general election and for Cowen himself, who would have faced calls to resign as party leader if the Green votes had gone the other way.
Only last week he scored a major victory in getting the European Union's reform treaty ratified in a referendum but Cowen faces his toughest challenge over the new couple of months in persuading backbenchers to agree to yet another austerity budget.
The 49 year old has promised Brussels he will get the country's deficit, proportionately the worst in the euro zone, under control by 2013 and he needs to start cutting politically sensitive areas of spending to make that happen.
(Reporting by Andras Gergely; editing by Carmel Crimmins) ($1=.6782 Euro) Keywords: IRELAND POLITICS/ (carmel.crimmins@reuters.com; Reuters Messaging: carmel.crimmins.reuters.com@reuters.net; +353 1 500 1529) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.