FINE GAEL and Labour in coalition would be a “tug-of-war government”, Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has said.
Mr Martin formally launched Fianna Fáil’s election campaign yesterday with a promise to run an honest campaign grounded on realism. He launched a sharp attack on its main opponents for inconsistencies and unsustainable promises.
He claimed that Fine Gael and Labour could not bridge the gaps between their policies and also asserted that Labour had “lost its nerve” on the eve of the election by flip-flopping on the most important economic policies.
Mr Martin also strongly criticised Sinn Féin and claimed its economic policies had the potential to devastate the economy and pose a serious threat to Irish democracy.
The Fianna Fáil leader was speaking at his party’s headquarters in Mount Street yesterday, where he again acknowledged the party’s mistakes but argued that it had implemented the correct decisions over the past three years.
“I am not here to sugar-coat the situation and promise that all will be well if you vote for my party. I will leave that to Fine Gael, Labour and Sinn Féin,” he said.
Mr Martin said voters needed to consider which party was willing to demonstrate in a detailed manner how it would revive the economy, create jobs and reform the political system.
“The fundamental problem with the plans that Fine Gael has proposed is that Labour, their prospective partner, is opposed to a lot of them. Ireland cannot have a tug-of war government,” he said.
Mr Martin instanced the gap between Fine Gael’s budget-day proposal of €6 billion in savings compared with a figure of €4.5 billion suggested by Labour. He also pointed to differences in their positions on the balance between tax and cuts.
He said Labour had flip-flopped on economic policies by dropping its proposal for a 48 per cent tax rate for those earning over €100,000. On the question of reducing the national debt, he said this week Labour had suddenly extended the time scale to 2016 and lowered the overall cuts by €2 billion.
“The Labour Party on the eve of election has lost its nerve,” he said. “It is a worrying shift in such a short space of time.”
He said Labour leader Eamon Gilmore had to “stop pretending that you can postpone the correction until 2016. Stop pretending that you can dictate the terms of the [EU-IMF] deal,” he said.
Mr Martin also said he was very disappointed about the comments made by Pat Rabbitte about the party’s unelected spokeswoman on political reform, Averil Power.
“It was dismissive to women and also against people who are not elected representatives and not TDs. What Pat said was offensive to women. What was worse was that the Labour Party leader did not see what was wrong and essentially condoned Pat Rabbitte’s comments,” he said.
Asked about the electoral threat to Fianna Fáil posed by Sinn Féin, Mr Martin argued that its budgetary proposal would devastate the country.
“Gerry Adams needs to be asked where [he] will get the €50 billion to pay teachers, doctors, nurses and gardaí. Gerry Adams wants to wave a magic wand . . . Sinn Féin’s tax proposals are very severe. Two-thirds of the correction will be tax. That would be devastating on people across rural Ireland. It will devastate workers and destroy enterprise,” he said.
Asked if Fianna Fáil had any credibility, given that it claimed in 2007 it was the only party that could protect the economy, he accepted the party had made mistakes.
“The recession that came was much more severe than anticipated, the worst since 1929. Over three years we have demonstrated a credibility on public finances and €21 billion has been taken out in corrective measures.
“That was a necessary decision and the right decision and deeply unpopular.”
