Economy:Fianna Fáil is prepared to repeat the mistakes of its 1977 general election manifesto in an effort to hold on to power, according to Fine Gael's enterprise spokesman Phil Hogan.
Pointing to the promises made by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mr Hogan accused Fianna Fáil of panicking. "They thought about 1977. After all, both Séamus Brennan and Bertie Ahern were there."
Condemning Fianna Fáil as profligate, Fine Gael focused repeatedly over the weekend on the 53 promises made by Mr Ahern in his Fianna Fáil Ardfheis speech. "They want to buy your vote again. We want somebody who will not allow that to happen."
Warning that "past successes" were not enough for Ireland's future, Fine Gael's deputy leader and Finance spokesman Richard Bruton said the Government had got "into the economic equivalent of bad eating habits.
"It has grown sluggish. It binges on junk fund. It has reduced exercising and, worst of all, it refuses to believe what the weighing scales are saying."
Fianna Fáil, Mr Bruton added, had thought seriously about being prudent in its election promises - about going "for the low-fat and low-sugar option.
"But within days, this little voice of conscience was overwhelmed by its animal urges when it sat down to red meat, sweet wine and cream cake all round, a banquet of 53 dishes."
Taxation under the Fianna Fáil/ PD government has increased by 7 per cent over the last five years, because of increased charges and the failure to adjust tax bands in line with inflation.
"Now they court voters with a new package of tax promises. Is it credible to believe that they will deliver this in more difficult times what they have not done in the last five easy years?"
If elected, Mr Bruton said, Fine Gael would index tax bands and credits "to stop people's tax position being eroded by stealth as their wages rise".
Fine Gael would also increase the home carer tax credit by €1,000 to benefit stay-at-home parents or those caring for their own parents, and would increase the standard tax rate band by €5,000. Parents would qualify for a €1,500 subsidy on vouched childcare bills, while the "widening gap" between single- and double-income families would be halted.
Although he attacked Fianna Fáil's profligacy, Mr Bruton stood by Fine Gael's plans to made significant cuts to house stamp duty, which could cost the Exchequer €450 million annually.
"Fine Gael makes no apology for seeking a mandate to change this perverse, unfair stealth tax. Fianna Fáil's policy is driven by the developer and the speculator.
"Ours is driven by the interests of the family; the family that wants to buy a home for the first time; the family that wants to move in to a larger home with growing children. "Fianna Fáil does not want to help these people, but we do."
He accused Minister for Finance Brian Cowen of launching a "bankrupt" attack on Fine Gael's proposals. Under the Fine Gael plan, first-time buyers would pay no stamp duty on houses worth less than €450,000 and, if it cost more they would pay duty only on the amount above that figure.
"For families moving home, we will take no stamp duty on the first €100,000 of the house price, just 5 per cent from the next €350,000 and 9 per cent from the excess over €450,000," he said.
"Stamp duty is structured in a particularly unjust way. The tax take from an ordinary house has quadrupled in the space of just four years."
Mr Bruton rejected Mr Cowen's charge that Fine Gael's plan was "badly timed", since a stamp duty reduction would be "exactly what the housing market needed at a time of uncertainty".
