The Labour Party is entering general election mode to confront a discredited, arrogant Government, the party's national conference in Cork was told this evening by party leader, Pat Rabbitte.
With the party facing a potentially divisive vote on whether to enter a pre-election pact with Fine Gael, Mr Rabbitte called on delegates to make decisions "in the traditional Labour Party style, openly and honestly."
Mr Rabbitte has made no secret of his wish for Labour to enter the next election campaign linked to Fine Gael by a vote transfer pact and the success of this policy will be judged by who sits down around the Cabinet table after the 2007 election. Mr Rabbitte he said he aims to substantially increase the party's 21 TDs at the polls.
This evening Mr Rabbitte attacked the record of the current Government highlighting the decisions on the second terminal at Dublin Airport and the proposed privatisation of Aer Lingus as examples of "an incredibly stupid row".
"The only losers as a result of the dithering, indecision and in-fighting that has characterised this Government's approach to an important issue have been the people who use Dublin Airport, the families and individuals.
"But if the three-terminal solution is mad and bad enough, the willingness of the Parties in Government to play political and ideological games with our national airline is, as Roisin Shortall has pointed out, a scandal," he said.
Mr Rabbitte said anyone who was willing to give majority control of Aer Lingus away was not acting in the national interest. "Once this sale is effected, there can be no guarantee that our national airline won't be turned into a feeder airline for some European hub . . . I know it is not fashionable to say so but the sell-out of Aer Lingus is a shameful decision."
On a day when the Taoiseach said the Government commitment to the Belfast Agreement was "rock solid" Mr Rabbitte said the Northern Ireland peace process represents "yet more Government failure".
"The tacit and unspoken decision of both Governments to pander to the extremes of politics has led inevitably to a situation that is more divided than in any recent period".
Moving on to broader political issues Mr Rabbitte said he supported the proposed EU Constitution. France will hold a referendum on this Constitution on Sunday with most polls predicting a defeat.
And while he does support the EU Constitution, Mr Rabbitte said the Labour Party would take issue "with any unnecessary or extraneous changes being made to our own Constitution as part of the process of ratifying the EU Constitution."
More than 11,000 delegates are registered to this weekend's conference and the party now claims 7,225 members. Almost half of new recruits are women and the party broke through the 100-seat barrier in local government elections last year.
Delegates are due to vote on the critical electoral pact motion tomorrow morning even though a competing motion by the ATGWU only wants the party to enter government if it is the largest party.
Party president Michael D Higgins earlier told delegates at the Brandon Hotel that the present Government had damaged Ireland's image as a country of warmth and kindness to one of greed. It had created a version of the country as "gushing, brash, manipulative, speculative, ostentatious, and grossly vulgar in its flaunting of wealth," he said.
The motion has been tabled by Labour's National Executive Committee and authorises Mr Rabbitte to agree "a broad common policy agenda" and a vote transfer agreement with "genuinely democratic parties of opposition".