Election Special 2002: NOONAN: IT'S OVER NOW

FINE Gael leader Michael Noonan quit last night after his party suffered its most humiliating defeat in the history of Irish elections.

Fine Gael's vote collapsed across the country, losing almost HALF its seats.

A devastated Mr Noonan said last night: "It was a tragedy to lose so many good colleagues.

"I take absolute responsibility. I had a very good staff, very good advisors and a very good director of elections. The responsibility is mine and mine alone.

"And I think I am taking the appropriate course of action tonight by indicating my intention to resign."

Among those to suffer at the electoral guillotine were former Justice Minister Nora Owen and deputy leader Alan Dukes.

Mrs Owen's vote collapsed to just over 4,000 votes in Dublin North while Dukes - tipped as a future leader of Fine Gael - lost his seat in Kildare South by a handful of votes as Fianna Fail scooped two out of three.

Senior officials conceded that the Fine Gael seat share might fall by as many as 24 - leaving it with just 30 seats in the new Dail.

As the results came in, backbenchers and even former leader and Taoiseach John Bruton rounded on Mr Noonan, saying he had serious questions to answer.

A surge of disquiet had already emerged before Mr Noonan made his decision, with many backbenchers publicly calling for the leader's resignation.

Sligo Leitrim TD John Perry said: "I think he has to do the honourable thing."

Mr Perry said that "very strong" questions now had to be asked about the party's defeat.

And Mr Bruton hung a question mark over Mr Noonan's leadership. Speaking in a radio interview, Mr Bruton said the crippling electoral defeat would not have happened if he had still been at the helm.

Asked if he believed the outcome would have been different if he had been leader, Mr Bruton said: "I believe Fine Gael would have done better in this election by a considerable margin."

And referring to the surprise leadership challenge against him two years ago, he said: "I think that the very fact of reversing a decision made only a month previously on the position of leader and deputy leader was in itself very deeply damaging to the party, because it displayed a lack of rigour, a lack of commitment to decisions already democratically taken.

But despite an earlier statement that the party faced a major challenge and questions to answer, he insisted the matter of Mr Noonan's leadership would be dealt with.

Mr Bruton said: "The Fine Gael party has a very good rule, which provides that after after any general election in which the party leader is not becoming Taoiseach that he must submit himself to be re- elected or not, as the case may be, in a secret ballot.

"So that matter will be dealt with anyway. There's no need to bring it up in discussions at this stage."

Looking exhausted as he spoke to reporters after Ms Owen's shock defeat at around 3am yesterday, Mr Bruton said the party faced a "major challenge" that required "deep thought".

The Fine Gael vote in some areas was slashed to a tiny share of its 1997 total and many front bench TDs were battling hard to hold onto their seats.

Former deputy leader Nora Owen was among the party's first casualties in the pilot electronic vote in Dublin North.

Mrs Owen was clearly devastated as the blow was delivered by the returning officer shortly after 2.30am yesterday.

She was comforted by constituency colleague Sean Ryan of Labour, who held on to the seat he gained in the by-election caused by former Fianna Fail minister Ray Burke's resignation.

Green Party leader Trevor Sargent, the first to be elected in the constituency on the sixth count, also offered sympathised with her as she broke down.

Just minutes before, Mrs Owen had said she was "confident" of holding her seat as she had put in a strong campaign.

She said: "I believe there's a seat for Fine Gael in Dublin North. The reaction we are getting at the doors does not make me believe Fianna Fail has two seats in this constituency."

But she was proved wrong - Fianna Fail senator and former Irish rugby player Jim Glennon scooped the second seat and will now sit in the Dail alongside newly re-elected TD GV Wright.

Mrs Owen said the experience was "pretty shattering". And she wasn't the only TD waiting on a knife-edge to complain that the electronic voting system lacked "humanity and dignity".

The former minister, still walking with a crutch after an accident some weeks ago, left the count centre accompanied by her sister, Fine Gael MEP Mary Banotti.

Former Taoiseach John Bruton, who was re-elected in Meath, paid tribute to his colleague. He said Mrs Owen was "one of the most warm- hearted people in the Dail". He added: "She's the heart of Fine Gael. It's a tragedy that she has lost her seat."

Even the party's youngest and brightest, including Brian Hayes in Dublin South West, fell foul of the vote "meltdown".

In Kildare North, Fine Gael TD Bernard Durkan held on to his seat by under 200 votes after being hounded all the way by Fianna Fail's Paul Kelly.

Fine Gael deputy leader Jim Mitchell was struggling to keep his seat in Dublin Central and Austin Currie was knocked out in his bid for a seat in the new Dublin Mid-West constituency.

Green Party candidate Paul Gogarty, Fianna Fail's John Curran and PD leader Mary Harney took the three seats there.

Other Fine Gael TDs in danger included Simon Coveney in Cork South Central, Frances Fitzgerald in Dublin South East and Enda Kenny in Mayo. Fine Gael also looked like losing Michael Joe Cosgrave in Dublin North East, the casualty of a change in constituency boundaries and a reduction to three seats.

Auctioneer John V Farrelly lost his slot in Meath, but the party did manage to hold its two seats in the five seater, with 24-year- old councillor Damien English elected to serve alongside John Bruton.

Party strategists, Fine Gael grassroots workers and deputies were left stunned yesterday by the extent of the blows around the country.

But, officially at least, the party maintained that calls for Mr Noonan's resignation were not being entertained.

A Fine Gael spokesman told the Irish Sunday Mirror: "The appropriate time to raise such matters is when the last ballot of the last count has been counted and when the Fine Gael parliamentary party has been formed. Anything else is premature." In other shocks around the country, former Labour leader and Tanaiste Dick Spring lost his seat.

Speaking as early results came in from his Kerry North constituency, Mr Spring said: "My family survived in 69, 73, 77, 81 and 87 in very close counts. But I think we have just run out of luck."

The former rugby star added: "I think it's too tight and I can't see it. I can't see how I can spring back on this one.

"I have been dropped by the Munster selectors, the Irish selectors and the Kerry selectors. I think Jimmy Deenihan (FG) is going to be picked again.

"Unfortunately, despite a very good effort by my team and my family members, it's not going to happen."

Labour generally failed to make the major gains it predicted, but Fianna Fail strategists were on a high last night, hailing their military-like campaign a massive success.

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