LABOUR PARTY leader Eamon Gilmore has warned his party to be ready for a general election at any time, saying that the events of the past 10 days had shaken the Government parties to the core and it could no longer be assumed the coalition would run its course.
"The period since Tuesday of last week has seen the most remarkable period in our political life, probably since the events that led to the resignation of Albert Reynolds as taoiseach in 1994," said Mr Gilmore.
"In that short period we have seen the biggest Budget shambles, possibly in the history of the State; the withdrawal of support for the Government by two deputies, and the resignation of a number of councillors from Government parties; a major retreat by the Government on two key elements of the Budget; claims by the deputy leader of the Green Party that her party had threatened to walk out of Government last weekend; an unprecedented public backlash against the Government, manifested in the biggest street demonstrations on social or economic issues since the 1980s; and an admission by the Taoiseach that his authority has been undermined."
Mr Gilmore added that the Budget controversy was far from over as Government backbenchers would have to face the fury of parents and teachers when the Dáil debates the Labour motion next week calling for a reversal of the decision to increase the pupil/teacher ratio.
"Farmers are on the warpath and there are growing concerns about whether or not the Government will pay the traditional social welfare bonus.
"The Government is now facing a winter of discontent," said the Labour leader.
He said that the assumption when the Government was elected in June 2007 that, given its comfortable majority, it would run its course until 2012, could no longer be relied upon.
"The Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance have failed their first major economic and political test by bringing in a Budget that, in its original form, they were clearly incapable of getting through the Dáil.
"The political credibility of the Taoiseach and all the members of Cabinet who approved this Budget has been seriously damaged.
"The blame game in Government has begun and there appears to have been a major breakdown in trust.
"The experience of coalitions in the past is that when trust breaks down, a government's days are numbered."
Mr Gilmore added that the crisis- and gaffe-prone Government might stumble on but it was seriously damaged and the Labour parliamentary party would continue to apply the pressure in the Dáil and Seanad to have those elements of the Budget that target the poor and the vulnerable overturned.
"There is no certainty that the Government will survive the public and political pressure. Therefore the Labour Party is making preliminary preparation for a possible general election at any time from now on," said Mr Gilmore.
His predecessor as Labour leader, Pat Rabbitte, also spoke last night about the impact of "a spontaneous uprising of retired citizens" who had humbled an elected Government.
"Suddenly, for us in Ireland at any rate, the world has been stood on its head. We have gone from boom to bust in the space of one very wet summer. Emigration has recommenced.
"Bertie Ahern has broken his leg, the developers have broken the banks and Waterford lost the All-Ireland," he told a graduates reunion at the Waterford Institute of Technology.
"I believe that bad government risks making our country ungovernable," said Mr Rabbitte.
