FORMER government chief whip Tom Kitt has slammed Taoiseach Brian Cowen's style of leadership citing his "poor communications and consultation" and his confrontational style in the Dáil chamber as negative attributes. Kitt also hinted that the cabinet is being dominated by a "triumvirate" of powerful individuals – Mary Coughlan, Brian Cowen and Brian Lenihan.

He made his comments to TV3's political editor Ursula Halligan on the station's The Political Party programme on Friday night. Kitt said, "There are issues we need to be careful about. We need to watch our communications and our consultations… I can see where we need to maybe improve communications; there is talk of a triumvirate, I don't know if there is."

When Halligan asked if he was talking about Lenihan, Coughlan and Cowen, Kitt replied, "Yeah, that's what's said but I don't know, I'm not in the cabinet. If there is, that is not a good development because we didn't do troikas and we didn't do any kind of groups or cabals."

When Halligan asked if he had heard cabinet communications were poor, he said, "I'm not there at the cabinet but you hear stories about that… We need to get communications right within the cabinet. We need also to make sure that permeates down into the parliamentary party."

Kitt also claimed Cowen has a "more confrontational" style than his predecessor Bertie Ahern and the atmosphere in the Dáil chamber is not as calm under Cowen's leadership. He added, "He [Cowen] is not going to listen to my advice but I'd say he should keep an eye on that, the way he conducts Leader's Questions."

Kitt, the only serving minister under Ahern to be sacked by Cowen, also said the taoiseach should show more respect to opposition leader Enda Kenny in the chamber as "he deserves to be respected."