Amid a Cabinet rift over his future, the Labour Party attempted to flush out Mr Cowen’s opponents by forcing the motion.
But Chief Whip John Curran refused to free up Dáil time, forcing the party to wait for more than a week to test the Taoiseach’s support.
“The reality is that this is just another meaningless political stunt which exposes (Labour leader) Eamon Gilmore’s reluctance to abandon the ’politics as usual’ approach,” Mr Curran said.
“This is a shallow posturing approach to politics which does nothing to aid economic recovery.”
Mr Gilmore branded the Government dysfunctional and said it was reneging on commitments to hold an election in the early part of the year.
“We now have a Government where one party says it is fully out of Government, but not yet,” he said.
“Several Cabinet ministers have announced that they are not going to contest the next general election anyway and the rest of them are squabbling over who should be the next leader of Fianna Fáil.
“Meanwhile there’s nobody running the country.”
But the Opposition itself is divided over the no confidence motion – Fine Gael claimed it could serve to unite the Government.
“We believe it to be ill advised and badly timed, at a time when Fianna Fáil are in turmoil, Labour are offering them a chance to unite,” a spokesman said.
“It is difficult to see how a motion of no confidence can succeed.”
Sinn Féin, which yesterday asked for a Dáil vote on Mr Cowen’s future as Taoiseach, said the Labour intervention was better late than never.
“Though belated, this is welcome,” Caoimhghin O Caolain said.
“The immediate priority for all should be the earliest possible removal of this Government and the calling of a general election.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan and Tourism Minister Mary Hanafin remain the three main challengers to the Taoiseach.
Ms Hanafin was the only one to break rank and demand a quick resolution of the leadership crisis.
After talking to the Taoiseach, she said: “The Taoiseach is continuing to consult with members of the parliamentary party and I am satisfied that my views will be taken into consideration along with those of my party colleagues.”
But Tánaiste Mary Coughlan hit back at suggestions of a heave.
“None of those people have in any way intimated to me or at a Cabinet meeting or to our front bench that they were going to be disloyal to the Taoiseach,” she said.
It is understood a relatively small number of backbench TDs asked Mr Cowen for talks on his future despite an offer of individual talks in person.
Concerns over Mr Cowen's leadership came to a head this week after he was publicly grilled in the Dail on Wednesday on his contacts with disgraced Anglo Irish Bank boss Sean FitzPatrick.
Under pressure, he revealed the names of two other business chiefs who joined him and Mr FitzPatrick for a post-golf match dinner in Druid’s Glen – Gary McGann, chief executive of Smurfit Kappa, who was a director of Anglo at the time, and Alan Gray, an economist appointed to the Central Bank board by Mr Cowen.
Green leader John Gormley, who said he had concerns over the continued revelations, said the leadership issue created instability.
“That’s the last thing this country needs right now,” the coalition partner said.
Meanwhile, Mr Cowen earned some respite from the Anglo controversy when former chief of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) Michael Somers dismissed reported claims by ex-Anglo chief David Drumm that the Taoiseach pushed for a cash injection in the bank.
Mr Somers, who oversaw banking arrangements for State borrowing, insisted he could not recall being ordered by Mr Cowen to deposit funds with Anglo.
“I’ve no recollection that he ever told me to put money specifically into Anglo,” Mr Somers said.
“I don’t recall being pressed orally. In terms of being pressed in writing, I was the agent of the Minister for Finance, if the Minister for Finance wanted me to do something he would have written to me and told me ’increase that deposit with Anglo’.
“He did not do that.”
Eamon O Cuiv, Minister for Social Protection, suggested the Taoiseach’s opponents in Cabinet should resign.
“If I didn’t have confidence in Brian Cowen obviously it would be invidious for me to stay as a Cabinet minister in this Government,” Mr O Cuiv said.
Batt O’Keeffe, Enterprise Minister, backed him.
Junior Minister Conor Lenihan, brother of leadership contender Brian Lenihan, said people in his constituency wanted a change of leader.
But he added: “I haven’t made up my mind on that matter.”
Junior minister Dr Martin Mansergh issued a statement through Fianna Fáil saying he had given the Taoiseach his full support.