PD transport policy:The Progressive Democrats have claimed that the Green Party's transport policy would threaten plans to build motorways between Dublin and the other main cities.
Yesterday afternoon PD leader Michael McDowell used the launching of his own party's transport policy to mount an attack on the Greens, claiming that they had gone from "sandals to flip-flops" on the issue.
He said that Green Party policy documents showed that the party wanted to scale back the road-building programme.
Green TDs had refused to answer questions from the media about what they intended to do on the roads programme, Mr McDowell claimed. When asked "fairly simple straightforward questions", Green TDs Ciarán Cuffe and Eamon Ryan had failed to answer them.
"This is a flip-flop of the most extraordinary kind. They have flung the whole engine into reverse. They have gone from sandals to flip-flops because they've gone from green principles to fudge."
He said that this was "a form of fudging and deception" aimed at hiding the fact that the motorway programme would be in jeopardy if the Greens were in power.
Mr McDowell denied that his party was engaged in negative campaigning and that the attack on the Greens had been prompted by fears that the PDs were extremely vulnerable to rising support for that party.
He said that the Greens could not just say: "Don't criticise us and ask us what we stand for, because we're not quite clear ourselves."
He added: "We are trying to bring clarity and choice before the people. That is not attack politics."
The PD transport proposals include plans for a new outer ring road for Dublin, light-rail services for Cork and moving Dublin port to a site in north Co Dublin.
The party is committed to completing the inter-urban motorway network, which the current Fianna Fáil/PD Government had previously committed to completing by this year.
It is also seeking reform of the bus market through privatisation of certain routes, along with a series of projects announced 18 months ago in the Government's Transport 21 document. These include a new terminal at Dublin airport, a metro line to Dublin airport and integrated ticketing.