Updated 12.58

MARY HANAFIN has said she would be interested in becoming leader of Fianna Fáil if a leadership election was to be held – but has said she would not be taking part in any moves to oust Brian Cowen as the party leader.

RTÉ reports that Hanafin denied any existence of a heave against Cowen, and said she would not take part in one if there was.

She acknowledged, however, that if the leadership was to become vacant, she would be interested in putting her name forward as a candidate to fill it.

Hanafin – the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport – also expressed doubts that the Green Party had acted in the national interest by announcing yesterday that it was seeking a general election before the end of January.

Hanafin was “very annoyed” by the manner in which the junior partner had made its announcement, with PA reporting her as saying the Greens’ press conference “certainly wasn’t expected”.

The minister added:

I’m not sure that they have shown that they have the best interests of stability of the country at heart but we will just work with them over the next couple of months.

“We are just going to have to work with them over the next few months,” the Irish Times adds. “This is bigger than the Green Party and bigger than Fianna Fáil.”

Green TD Paul Gogarty told Newstalk FM this lunchtime he was “flabbergasted” by Hanafin’s remarks, saying his party had not being staying in government “for the good of its own health”.

Ireland had been bullied into seeking a bailout by the market price of Irish government borrowing, he said, and the Greens could have withdrawn from government at any time before now but had declined to do so.