LABOUR PARTY:FIANNA FÁIL and Fine Gael were comfortable with each other's policies, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil.

“They both voted for the blanket bank guarantee,” he said. “They are both happy to embrace austerity, to line up behind the EU-IMF deal, whatever the cost in jobs.”

Mr Gilmore added it was clear “that neither has any wish to break up the Celtic Tory consensus that has brought us to where we are”.

Labour, said Mr Gilmore, could lead a change in the way government worked and thought, bringing the real concerns of the people to the heart of government.

The party, he said, would fight the elections on jobs, reform and fairness.

“Government is not a hospitality tent, roped off for VIPs,” he added. “Government is not a big house, shielded from the people by high walls. Government is not the business of the insiders, it is the business of us all.”

Mr Gilmore said it was time to roll up the tent and put the concerns of the people at the heart of government.

“That is what Labour is all about,” he said. “That is why Connolly and Larkin founded the Labour Party, and now its time has come.”

The Labour leader said he wanted to wish Brian Cowen and his family the best for the future.

“He and I have clashed in robust debate,” Mr Gilmore said. “He has always stood by his position and I have stood by mine and now our parties will put our case to the verdict of the people.”

Labour, he added, was the party to reform politics because it had the best track record in that area.

“Labour is the party to reform our public services because we believe in public services . . . we have a 140-point plan to bring about reform,” said Mr Gilmore.

Labour was also the party of fairness, he said. “Alone among the political parties, we will make literacy, not just a policy objective but a national cause.”