John Bruton, Survived challenge to leadership
John Bruton has won a vote of no confidence in his leadership of the Fine Gael party. Austin Deasy, the Waterford deputy who startled Fine Gael by tabling the no confidence motion, said that Mr Bruton had a handsome majority but he said that the vote for his position had been significant. The Waterford deputy said that he had no regrets for initiating the leadership debate. Mr Deasy said yesterday that the party would fare extremely badly if John Bruton led it into a General Election.
Of the 19 people who contributed to the meeting, six spoke openly against the Bruton leadership. They were concerned at the party's low position in the polls with an election possible next year. However, one of them, Leitrim TD Gerry Reynolds, said afterwards that the no confidence debate had probably unified the party and he believed the leadership issue would not come up again this side of the General Election.
Tonight Mr Bruton said that he believed that the party had been strengthened by discussing the issues raised by the motion and he would be leading it into the next General Election. He said that it was now time for the party to get back to the business of replacing the coalition Government and reinvigorating the country.
