The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has used the start of Fianna Fail's local election campaign in Dublin to make a stinging attack on the "Civic Alliance", a bloc of parties on the city council designed to keep control of the local authority away from his party.
The alliance was initiated after the last local elections by the Labour Party, i Quinn, to bind Labour, Fine Gael, the Greens, the Community Group and the Workers' Party into a controlling majority. For the first five years the bloc was able to rotate offices among themselves.
Accusing the alliance of being "anti-development and anti-progress" since 1991, the Taoiseach said: "One thing I don't like in politics is gross hypocrisy", adding: "People following populist issues will not solve the problem of housing for young people."
The alliance frustrated progress and "they have been at it through every constituency" by objecting to plans for a range of projects, including the Dublin Docks tunnel and the completion of ring roads. This was not to suggest that Fianna Fail councillors were soft on planning matters.
"Fianna Fail councillors are tougher than most on bad developments," he said.
Meanwhile, local authorities should become "engines of social, economic, cultural and investment activity". Local government should, where appropriate, integrate into existing voluntary activity.
Litter was a "desperate, desperate problem" throughout the city. It was the biggest cause of tourists' complaints, he said.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, accused the rainbow government of "intensely damaging decisions" while in office. He had been shocked on becoming Minister to discover its lack of response to increasing house prices.
"I was shocked by the effect that Ruairi Quinn's savage increases in stamp duty were having on ordinary people who simply wanted to own their own home," Mr Dempsey said.
According to the Fianna Fail local election manifesto, "flexitime" should be promoted for Dublin workers to help to reduce peak-time traffic congestion.
Workers should be allowed a three-hour period between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. to get to work and a similar period between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to get home. This would reduce traffic and alleviate the chronic congestion that builds up at morning and evening rush-hour.
Innovative approaches should also be adopted to flexible opening times for schools to ease traffic flow.