The Fine Gael leader adds his voice to those against single-party government, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Reporter.Fine Gael has launched a major change in its electoral strategy to warn about the dangers of a single-party Fianna Fáil majority and tougher economic times ahead.
Bruised by poor poll results, the party's leader, Mr Michael Noonan, said yesterday that voters had three choices: Fianna Fáil single-party rule; a Fianna Fáil-led coalition or a coalition led by Fine Gael and Labour.
"I am saying to the voters of Ireland, this is not over. Do not be sleep-walked into returning Fianna Fáil because there is no alternative. There is an alternative," he declared. The Progressive Democrats' "much-vaunted watchdog" failed to prevent "corruption and sleaze" during its 1989-1992 alliance with Fianna Fáil, he said. "Watchdog politics does not work."
"While Des O'Malley, a decent man and committed politician thought he was keeping Fianna Fáil in check, those are the same years that figure most in Charles Haughey's career in the evidence before the tribunals," he said.
He went on: "If a government of Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats has not worked, what chance is there that a single-party Fianna Fáil government might work? It was the excesses of the last single-party Fianna Fáil government in the 70s that wrecked the economy in the 80s. Today, even their own supporters apparently do not like Fianna Fáil on their own.
"The people who know Fianna Fáil best, the PDs, have warned us that Fianna Fáil cannot be trusted on their own. The PDs have not, however, told us why. Mary Harney now has an obligation to spell out precisely why," he said.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, talked "a good game about ethics", yet he would "share a platform with Denis Foley in Tralee to get extra support for his ticket down there" and "embrace Padraig Flynn and his support in Mayo".
On the country's finances, Mr Noonan pointed out that tax revenues were substantially behind target, while government spending in the first five months was 23 per cent over target. "Public spending will have to be brought under control and brought under control quickly, otherwise the commitments of all the parties will be null and void," he told journalists.
Mr Noonan also strongly attacked Fianna Fáil's health pledges.
"They again have brought forward bogus promises. They are telling blatant lies. They have pledged to end the waiting lists by 2004. In the present disorganised state of the health service, that simply can't be done. They know it. The Minister for Health knows it. The officials in the Department of Health know it."
Mr Noonan said the Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, had made clear his preference for a post-election alliance with Fine Gael and that both parties largely agreed on social and economic issues.
Asked about his own poor ratings, Mr Noonan said they were 12 per cent higher than his party's and had not stopped him foiling the Government's abortion referendum or winning the Tipperary South by-election.
Meanwhile, the former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, has urged Fine Gael supporters and others to "wake up" and fend off now the threat of a Fianna Fáil majority "rather than complain about it in two weeks' time".
"If there was a blight in Ireland during the 1980s, an economic blight, emigration, that blight can be traced back to the single-party majority government that we had from 1977," he told The Irish Times.
"It was they who ruined our inheritance and left the following generation of politicians, and I was one of them, to clear up the mess," said Mr Bruton, in one of the most passionate campaign interventions to date.