Dublin - Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen, who is currently presiding over the severest economic crisis to hit Ireland in 20 years, is a man in need of a plan.

While his predecessor, the ever-popular Bertie Ahern, was the face of the Celtic Tiger boom, which took off in the mid-1990s and was over by 2007, Cowen - once Aherne's finance minister - has misfortune to be tied to, and blamed for, Ireland's sharp economic downturn

Since taking up office on May 7, Brian Cowen has sustained two crushing political blows.

The first was Ireland's rejection in a June referendum of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, the ratification of which was his first priority on taking up office.

Far from the deal-making days of his predecessor Bertie Ahern's premiership, Cowen is now in the position of having to go cap in hand to Europe with a plan by October on how he can bring his errant voters to heel.

Cowen has also faced fierce criticism for not personally intervening before the breakdown of national pay talks on August 3.

Such a breakdown had not occurred in 21 years of national wage agreements and has led to fears of a winter of discontent and industrial unrest.

"The tanaiste (deputy prime minister) and Cowen were there on the Friday night before the talks broke down, but their contribution was very limited," a spokesman for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"In contrast, Ahern would seem to have had more contact with the process. He would have tried to put something on the table."

According to the spokesman, the ICTU feels that the national pay deal cannot be rescued, "unless Cowen puts some sort of initiative forward" and is "very disappointed" at the government's contribution so far.

After the talks collapsed, Cowen asked the parties to reflect during August and announced that he would be meeting them at the end of the month. He then retreated to Ireland's west coast for a two- week break.

The fact that he was taking a holiday at all attracted a great deal of censure from sections of the media, while reports that he was "officially" staying at a luxury hotel while he was holed up in a caravan seemed to be motivated by spite rather than the public interest.

Those who did concede that he had the right to take a holiday like everyone else are now impatient for him to show decisive leadership.

When it emerged that there was a shortfall in July government revenues of 776 million euros (1.15 billion dollars), a much higher than anticipated figure, the public's patience began to wear thin.

Many blame Cowen for poor stewardship during his time as finance minister, charging him with being more interested in winning the 2007 election for his Fianna Fail party than in the country's finances.

As he marked 100 days in office last Thursday, he was faced with the question whether he had a clear strategy for the economy and, if so, when was he going to reveal it.

The Irish Times newspaper reported last week that Cowen was planning to make a "state of the nation" address in September to outline what he plans to do next.

The report quoted a government source as saying that it was never Cowen's intention to set out his priorities as prime minister until he had had time to make a full assessment.

"There has been a lot of criticism of him not doing it sooner. But he wanted to see how things would pan out," the source said. (dpa)