Fianna Fáil is proposing a National Development Finance Agency simply so they can disguise the fact that they intend to borrow, the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said yesterday.
Mr Noonan was critical of the concept of the agency which Fianna Fáil says would have responsibility for ensuring the best value for money is achieved in the financing and delivery of major capital programmes.
The Fine Gael leader dismissed the Fianna Fáil manifesto published yesterday morning, describing it as "a poor enough thing" which seemed to have been photocopied and "had typos on most pages".
"In terms of content there was very little in it except things they promised five years ago and failed to deliver on."
Referring to the proposed agency, he said the Government had already set up almost 230 quangos.
"This new agency seems to be about more of the same, apparently to disguise borrowing rather than dealing directly through the Department of Finance. It is yet another Indian rope trick." The Government was trying to make the books look better and attempting to continue the no borrowing pretence begun in the Budget in December, he claimed. "Taxpayers should know exactly what's being done on their behalf. I don't like trick-of-the-hoop devices."
This was what got the economy into trouble in the 1980s when Mr Haughey was Taoiseach, he said. "It looks like we are going down that road again."
Launching his party's election campaign Mr Noonan warned that if Fianna Fáil was re-elected, changes in society which they have begun to implement in the last five years will be "cemented to the point where they are irreversible".
"The new Fianna Fáil Ireland will be one of ever more greed, stress and selfishness and of an increasingly divided society. The gap between the haves and the have nots will continue to grow. Class divisions will be accentuated. The Ireland that we have known, which has always been reasonably homogenous, will be gone, and gone forever."
Mr Noonan said the election was not about personalities, not about slogans and not about economics. H said it was about choice and about direction - where did we want Ireland to go.
"The last five years of Fianna Fáil have created an ideological culture of individual greed and a serious downgrading of community values.
"The consequences of this approach are obvious to all in their daily lives. Society has suffered. Some people are better off and those in the golden circle are enormously better off."
But, he said, there had been a severe deterioration in the quality of almost everybody's life. "It is a struggle through traffic to get to work . It is a struggle to find childcare and juggle the demands of work and family. Individual greed is rapidly replacing community spirit. The working day is long and demanding. Stress is everywhere. The streets are not safe. We have crime and we have fear of crime. All this adds immensely to the stress of daily lives." Mr Noonan said Fianna Fáil want the electorate to believe the election is over, that there is no choice, that no one else can do the job, and that they would be returned automatically to power.
"I have news for Fianna Fáil: this is a democracy. The people of Ireland will deliver their verdict on polling day as they did in all the six by-elections and the two referendums during this Government's lifetime."
Mr Noonan said Fianna Fáil had "promised us affordable childcare places. It has given us fewer places than we had five years ago and many of these are unaffordable to young couples."
Later yesterday Fianna Fáil said this was a groundless claim. The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, said the outgoing Government had "hugely increased funding for childcare" and that when Fine Gael had been in government it had "only allocated a miserly €3 million to childcare".
Fianna Fáil said there was a €1.27 billion investment programme underway "to support parents in whatever choices they make in looking after their children".
Fine Gael has 85 general election candidates. The party expected to spend up to its permissible limit, which was in excess of €1 million nationally and €1.4 million at constituency level, he said.
There are 21 first-time candidates. The party will launch its election manifesto this morning.