Irish Prime Minister Cowen fends off opposition challenge, wins confidence vote 82-77

Ireland’s premier survives confidence vote 82-77

DUBLIN — Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen has fended off an opposition attempt to topple him from power, winning a confidence vote in parliament 82-77.

Tuesday’s vote capped a six-hour debate over the ability of Cowen’s 2-year-old government to manage Ireland’s slide into recession, record debts and bank bailouts costing this nation of 4.2 million tens of billions of euros (dollars).

Cowen told lawmakers his government failed to foresee Ireland’s 2008 economic collapse when a property boom fueled by easy credit burst. He said opposition leaders likewise failed to see the crisis coming.

“Accepting due responsibility, as I do, does not oblige me to accept the rewriting of history and the barefaced denials about their record on the part of the opposition,” Cowen said.