Irish Prime Minister to Dissolve Government After Budget Is Enacted
Brian Cowen, the embattled prime minister of Ireland, said on
Monday that he would dissolve his government and hold a new
election once a new national budget is enacted. He is
scheduled to present a proposed budget on Dec. 7.
Mr. Cowen turned aside mounting pressure to resign
immediately over the country's worsening financial crisis,
its stagnating economy and the sharp cuts in public spending
and payrolls that are likely to be in the new budget.
The continued survival of Mr. Cowen's coalition government
with its narrow majority in the Dail, the Irish parliament,
was threatened by the reluctance of independent and Green
Party members to back an austerity budget. A financial rescue
package from other European nations, which Mr. Cowen's
government agreed over the weekend to accept after resisting
the idea for weeks, drew criticism as well, and a major
credit-rating agency, Moody's, said on Monday that it may
soon downgrade Ireland's rating by several notches.
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