Ireland's new leader vows to hit ground running

DUBLIN: Irish opposition leader Enda Kenny was poised to take power Sunday with a promise to move quickly on amending an unpopular international bailout after his Fine Gael party won historic elections.

Kenny looks certain to be taoiseach, or prime minister, after the ruling Fianna Fail party of incumbent Brian Cowen suffered a crushing defeat by voters angry at the collapse of their once-booming economy and the subsequent bailout.

But the 59-year-old Fine Gael leader told supporters in Dublin late Saturday there was "no time to lose, no hour to waste" as he confronted the challenges ahead, not least the form of the government he will lead.

The centrist party looks likely to fall short of a majority in the 166-seat Dail, the lower house of parliament, and several top Fine Gael figures have indicated a coalition with the opposition Labour party was likely.

With 134 seats declared, Fine Gael had 61, with 36.1 percent of the vote; Labour had 32 with 19.4 percent, and the dramatic collapse of Fianna Fail, which has dominated Irish politics for 80 years, was underlined as it had just 14 seats with 17.4 percent.

Fianna Fail's former coalition partners, the Green Party, also suffered, losing all of its six seats.

In addition, at least 11 independent lawmakers were elected and the republican Sinn Fein party almost tripled its seats to 13, including its president Gerry Adams, who enters the Dail for the first time.

Kenny said he would be looking at his party's options Sunday but stressed he would be "deciding on this very quickly," saying it was important to international markets that Ireland had a "stable and strong government".

He also vowed to move fast on a key campaign pledge to renegotiate the 85-billion-euro ($115-billion) bailout agreed with the European Union and International Monetary Fund in November, which many Irish see as a humiliation.

"We're going to move on this next week, I've already had contacts with Europe this very day," Kenny said in his first post-election TV interview.

Fine Gael director of elections Phil Hogan predicted Sunday his party would get about 77 seats, short of a majority. He refused to comment on a coalition beyond saying Fine Gael had "common ground" with other parties.

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said his party was "willing" to form a coalition government but said no talks had started yet. "The initiative rests with Fine Gael, that's a call they have to make," he told RTE television.

Cowen's Fianna Fail meanwhile slumped to its worst ever general election defeat and looked set to lose two thirds of its seats. It suffered a wipeout in Dublin, with only outgoing finance minister Brian Lenihan keeping his seat.

"Clearly today there wasn't support for our party in great numbers. We accept as democrats the outcome," Cowen conceded Saturday, after his government became the first among the 17 countries that use the euro to fall over the debt crisis.

Newspapers described the routing of Fianna Fail as a "political earthquake".

But the mass-selling Sunday Business Post said there would be "no honeymoon for the new government", warning: "There is much to be done but the immediate priority is clearly the talks on the EU bailout mechanism."

Kenny is the longest-serving lawmaker in the Dail and viewed as a steady pair of hands, but he has a tough task to fulfil his pledge on the bailout.

In the interview, he said it was a "bad deal for Ireland and for Europe", adding: "I see room for manoeuvre in terms of interest rates and in terms of the cost of the banking structure. We'll move on this very quickly."

But in Brussels, the European Commission said the new government must stick to the promises made on slashing Ireland's budget deficit and made no mention of renegotiating the deal.

Its economics spokesman Amadeu Altafaj told AFP: "The commission will continue to support Ireland and its next government in carrying out the programme... which is essential for the Irish economy."