OPPOSITION ROW:FINE GAEL leader Enda Kenny, has described an advertising campaign taken out by the Labour Party as an act of "desperation". Speaking during a visit to Co Limerick yesterday, Mr Kenny was asked about the newspaper advertisements which attack his party's fiscal plan.
“I’m disappointed to see where Labour have drifted here, and I’m not sure whether that smacks of panic or desperation, but I just want to say that I have no interest in misleading advertisements,” he said.
The public was far more concerned with questioning political parties about their future plans for the country than advertising campaigns, he said.
Mr Kenny refused to predict the outcome of the election or if his party would win an overall majority given its performance in polls, but said he was confident the country “is responding to our call”.
“On the last occasion that we had an election, Fine Gael had an arrangement with the Labour Party and people said there wasn’t sufficient choice.
“This time there is real choice and we are basing our programme on a five-point plan to get this country working.”
Mr Kenny described the depth of feeling of anger and agony in homes across Ireland as “absolutely palpable”, and insisted Fine Gael was committed to changing the way business was conducted here.
He insisted the politics of “cronyism and collusion” would cease if Fine Gael comes to power, and said his party had already listed 145 quangos that he would assimilate or remove.
Mr Kenny was speaking in Bruree, Co Limerick, where he launched his party’s agri-food policy.
The party has proposed the introduction of fair trade legislation which would force supermarkets to disclose the origin of products and help to put an end to “unfair trading practices”.
The party has also proposed a clearer labelling system for produce, and says it will maintain existing tax relief for young farmers. It also plans to overhaul the public procurement process to give agri-food businesses access to public food contracts and says it will alleviate the burden of the carbon tax on farmers by exempting farm diesel from any future increases.
Speaking at yesterday’s launch Fine Gael’s agriculture, fisheries and food spokesman Andrew Doyle said his party wanted to position Ireland as the green food island internationally.