Quality of life will be top of the Labour Party’s agenda if it enters into a coalition after the general election, party leader Mr Ruairi Quinn told delegates at the party’s special conference in Dun Laoghaire today.
He said people were "sick of waiting in hospitals, sick of waiting for homes and sick of waiting in traffic".
The country is now at a crossroads, he said. "We are hesitant about the future. Part of us is afraid to plan ahead in case we lose what we have gained. Another part is fearful that the good times cannot continue and that we should grab all we can, while we can.
"We know we can build a vibrant economy but we have yet to prove we can build the fair society to match it," Mr Quinn said.
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He rejected claims the party is too idealistic. He said the money needed to improve healthcare, infrastructure and the removal of those on the minimum wage from the tax net would be met by suspending three-quarters of the one per cent of GDP allocated to pensions for five years. He said this would generate €5bn but that further borrowing may be required.
He said the party would not "take lectures from Bertie Ahern" when it came to managing the State’s finances.
"The public finances moving into surplus in 1997 are back in deficit. Inflation that stood at just over 1 per cent in 1997 now stands at nearly 5 per cent. The 50,000 new jobs a year of 1997 has been turned into 165 job losses a day over the last three months. Increases in public spending are running at 21 per cent a year as against the promised 4 per cent," Mr Quinn said.
He accused Fianna Fáil of being dishonest about paying for enhanced quality of life. "Fianna Fail are back to the old lies of 1977, promising all things to all people," he claimed. He said they had replaced "national green of old" with "a new Tory blue", saying they were pro- corporate funding, pro- privatisation and increasingly Euro sceptic.
He pointed out that Labour members were not involved in the political scandals of the last five years. He said a vote for Fianna Fáil was a vote for "Ray Burke, for Liam Lawlor, for Beverly Cooper Flynn for Denis Foley, for Noel O’Flynn and a Taoiseach that tolerated the whole lot of them".
Legal recognition for couples who do not wish to get married and rights of gay couples were part of the party’s social agenda, Mr Quinn said. He also said he wanted more women in politics.
He paid special attention to Garda reform saying the party’s justice spokesman and deputy leader Mr Brendan Howlin was preparing the most radical reform proposals for the force still operating under structures set down in 1927.
"Let me be clear, Labour will not serve in any Government that doesn’t have reform of the Gardaí high on its political agenda", he said.
He said the party would not enter into coalition for the sake of attaining power and would fight the upcoming general election on an independent platform.