Greens call for January elections
The Green Party has called time on its coalition with Fianna Fáil.
A statement from the party has said "it is time to fix a date for a General Election in the second half of January".
Their leader John Gormley said the decision was made on Saturday after a long series of meetings.
Mr Gormley said: "The past week has been a traumatic one for the Irish electorate. People feel misled and betrayed.
“But we have now reached a point where the Irish people need political certainty to take them beyond the coming two months. So we believe it is time to fix a date for a general election in the second half of January 2011.”
The party then sent its two Cabinet ministers into an emergency meeting yesterday to sign off the IMF/EU bail-out.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen was told about the move this morning and Mr Gormley said he expressed disappointment at the decision.
The announcement comes after last night's decision of the Cabinet to seek emergency funding from the IMF.
In a statement the party said three things must be done in the coming two months to safeguard the future prosperity and independence of the Irish people.
They want a credible four-year plan "to show we can make our Budgets balance by 2014", a Budget delivered for 2011 and funding from the EU and IMF which will "respect vital Irish interests and restore stability to the Euro area".
