Mr Cowen says he is best-placed to lead his party into the election There has been uproar in the Irish parliament after five ministers quit the cabinet inside two days, with a sixth expected to join them.
It was confirmed overnight that four had tendered their resignations, joining Foreign Minister Micheal Martin, who stood down on Tuesday.
The enterprise minister is said to be also planning to resign.
Prime Minister Brian Cowen, faced with a general election this spring, is expected to name a new cabinet.
His government has seen its support rapidly dwindle since negotiating an international rescue for the debt-ridden economy last year.
The Dail (parliament) was suspended for 15 minutes during rowdy scenes after the opposition demanded the taoiseach (prime minister) come into the House and clarify who was in charge of the six ministries affected.
Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said that in 20 years he had never been in a situation where “we don’t know if we have a government, who’s in the government”.
“My advice to the taoiseach is that he should come into the Dail and dissolve the Dail and call elections,” Noel O’Flynn, himself a member of Mr Cowen’s Fianna Fail party but a critic of his leader, told Irish broadcaster RTE.
Mr Martin stood down after losing a challenge to Mr Cowen’s leadership of Fianna Fail, which opinion polls suggest will suffer badly in the election.
Mary Harney from health, Dermot Ahern from justice, Noel Dempsey from transport and Tony Killeen from defence resigned in the past 24 hours.
Batt O’Keefe, minister for enterprise, was said by Irish media to be resigning on Thursday.
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