APPEAL BY TAOISEACH:TAOISEACH Brian Cowen has appealed to voters not to punish Fianna Fáil councillors for the difficult decisions being taken by Government, and claimed his party's "councillors up and down the country" have "delivered so much to local communities".
He said “the Government has been unpopular in recent times” but that there was “also a growing recognition that the scale and magnitude of the problems we face require the Government to take very decisive action”.
He accused the Opposition parties of “negativity”, and said the Government was “confronted by an Opposition who have opposed every possible corrective measure that has been taken, and have no feasible alternatives to offer the people”.
Asked what would be “an acceptable share of the vote for Fianna Fáil on Friday, the Taoiseach said: “You can never say there’s an acceptable share – the people decide what share of the vote we get at this time.”
Mr Cowen expressed some optimism about the economy, noting that “one hopes that the exchequer returns will indicate that we’re starting to see a bottoming out at some level, but it’s important to point out that this is not going to be resolved in a sprint race – this is a marathon and Government have to continue decisive action”.
He said the Government was taking “difficult but important and necessary decisions” for “the good of the country”. Yet he also recognised and understood “the sometimes short-term impositions and hardships” being caused.
However, he said “there is also a recognition amongst the people I think that they expect their Government to do whatever’s necessary by the country and that’s what we’re doing”.
“In the meantime we’re fighting an election with a good set of candidates, with good policies, with a positive agenda, and obviously this will be all decided on June 5th by the people themselves.”