Tanaiste says Irish per capita income to exceed Britain's

IRELAND is set to out perform Britain for the first time in terms of per capita income, the Tanaiste said at the weekend. When the change was achieved next year it would add to the State's self confidence and "show in the most concrete way possible" the current Government has been a good one, according Mr Spring.

The landmark would be another indicator of many achievements by Labour in government, Mr Spring told the party's regional conference in Galway. Referring to its coalition partners and the forthcoming general election he said: "It has been a Government that has combined the best of analysis of the three parties in it to tackle a range of challenges."

The Government had turned the direction of the State around, and was going to shape the direction of Ireland for a long time. "Whenever the election comes, it is my hope that this Government takes on the chancers and me feiners that parade on the Opposition benches at present - and keeps them there, where they belong."

The Minister for Foreign Affairs singled out the Progressive Democrats for sustained criticism - a theme carried on by other Labour Ministers who addressed the conference on "Sharing Ireland's Future Access, Opportunity and Citizenship" - the third in a series of policy conferences.

The Progressive Democrats were preparing to launch a major assault on every concept of citizenship, of access, of opportunity that Labour believed in. "The PDs believe in only one kind of citizenship, the two tier kind where education and healthcare are a privilege for the better off."

The PDs were not prepared to indicate who was going to pay "the hundreds of millions of pounds their regressive tax policies will cost", Mr Spring claimed.

Future Labour policy, he said, would have to find the answer to two questions. First, "how are we to ensure that high economic growth, responsible management of public money, and careful control of spending is going to result in a better life for all our people?"

Second, "what role is to be played, in arriving at better living conditions and quality of life all round, by confronting powerful vested interests throughout society?"

The Cabinet is to consider a plan for local government reform within weeks, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Howlin, said. He declined to indicate if it addressed service charges, pending consideration in Cabinet - despite the concern of many delegates about their continued existence and reports that a new road tax might replace them.

Earlier, the Minister for Arts Culture and the Gaeltacht Mr Higgins, criticised the Fianna Fail PD vision of society. It envisaged privatising State companies, did not protect the wage economy, and was anti public service, he claimed. "There's a poisonous craw to it. Groups, individuals, the disadvantaged, do not matter."