The Taoiseach has denied that Fianna Fail's performance in the local elections was a "devastating indictment" of the Government.
An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern TD when he officially opened the new Fab 24 Intel facility in Leixlip yesterday. Photograph: Bryan O'Brien
The suggestion was put to him by the Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny who also suggested the Government was now out of touch and arrogant.
Following a Cabinet meeting in which the poor performance of the Government parties was discussed, Mr Ahern told the Dáil this afternoon that the issues causing resentment among voters, including health and education would be examined.
However, he denied that this would include a change to the proposed decentralisation scheme.
Mr Ahern said the first two years of the current coalition has been difficult economically and that the recent economic upturn had not filtered through to many people.
Defending his party's support Mr Ahern said the "Government parties have over 30 per cent support so I don't think that is the case [that the results were a devastating indictment] . . . our best in recent years was 39 per cent."
However, Mr Ahern was hectored by Opposition deputies who said 30 per cent support meant 70 per cent of the population did not support the Government parties.
Mr Ahern pointed to the development of the Intel plant in Leixlip Co Dublin as proof of the success of the Government's strategy.
"I don't accept that things are not working or that things are wrong. Yesterday I opened the Intel plant two billion pounds of direct investment. Giving some of the most highly qualified and most highly skilled jobs in the world of IT. Not in Ireland, the world of IT.
"Yesterday the general manager of the that company said the reason he was going ahead with another 4 billion [euro] of investment into this country is because our policies our flexibility our education system and our infrastructure system were as good as anywhere in the world."