Fine Gael and Labour plan to give details of a joint health policy next Tuesday, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent
The event appears to be timed to upstage the two-day Fianna Fáil "think-in" in Westport, Co Mayo, designed by the Government party to raise its profile in advance of next year's general election.
The leaders of the two "alternative government" parties, Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte, will give details on their health policy in Mullingar, which has become a highly symbolic location for the Fine Gael-Labour alliance.
It was here in 2004 that the two leaders effectively launched their attempt to win power together.
The two parties said yesterday that their leaders and a number of frontbench members would meet in Mullingar "to review progress on joint policy discussions".
Reliable sources have indicated that they will also put forward proposals on health.
This will be the third consecutive September in which Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte have travelled to Mullingar to highlight their alternative government alliance.
On each occasion they have timed the event to coincide with the annual Fianna Fáil Parliamentary Party "think-in", preventing that party from having an uninterrupted two days of good publicity.
As well as providing an opportunity for some political gamesmanship, it allows the two parties to show whether they have detailed joint policies on key issues to put before the voters.
At their event in Westport on Monday and Tuesday, Fianna Fáil figures would be expected to attack the "alternative" for not having such policies.
The Mullingar event is an attempt to counter any such claim made at the Fianna Fáil "think-in".
In a statement yesterday Fine Gael and Labour noted that they met in Mullingar in September 2004 "and agreed to work together to provide the electorate with a viable alternative government at the next election".
They said co-operation between the parties had increased significantly since then. "The two parties have produced a number of joint policy documents on such issues as social partnership, reform of public spending decision-making, Dáil reform and the rights of Irish emigrants abroad."
The health document is one of three which Fine Gael and Labour figures worked on over the summer. It was negotiated by Liam Twomey TD and Denis Naughten TD on behalf of Fine Gael, and Liz McManus TD and Senator Derek McDowell on behalf of Labour.
The parties say work is advanced on the other two policy areas - the public finances and crime - and that agreed policies in these areas will be launched in the coming weeks and months.
Interest in the Fine Gael-Labour document will centre on whether the parties have agreed common positions on several key health issues on which the two parties have ideological differences.
While Fine Gael has been open to an expanded role for the private sector in health, including the development of private hospitals, Labour has been unenthusiastic about this, seeing it as undermining equality of access to health services.
Labour proposed a system of universal health insurance before the 2002 general election, but this is not a concept Fine Gael would have been seen as embracing with enthusiasm.