Fine Gael is trying to throw a smokescreen over their "incompetent" plans for the economy, the Minister for Foreign Affairs said this morning.
"Fine Gael has not once nor twice but three times failed to respond to our challenges to be honest with the voters and explain the black hole in their proposals," Mr Cowen said.
He said Fine Gael had refused to list the details of their proposals and costs.
"Fine Gael’s national advertising states that all their proposals have been fully costed by the Department of Finance. Is it not then a reasonably simple task for them to list out the exact details of their proposals and costs?"
The Minister for Social Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern, said today the Government would continue to remove low-income earners from the tax net if returned to power.
"It is our policy to ensure that 80 per cent of taxpayers pay income tax at the lower rate only," he said.
Mr Ahern said Fianna Fáil had taken 12 percentage points off income tax rates since 1997, had trebled child benefit and had reduced Capital Gains Tax from 40 per cent to 20 per cent.