ELECTIONS 2004/Fianna Fáil European campaign launch: The Taoiseach has insisted that the Government parties have stuck to their 2002 election promises, saying that the media has not given adequate coverage to the Government's case on this issue.
Launching his party's European Parliament election campaign yesterday Mr Ahern said each Fianna Fáil European Parliament candidate would guarantee to serve the full five-year term, rather than hand over their seat to a substitute in mid-term. This would be the position unless "exceptional circumstances" arose.
At a press conference in Dublin he said Fianna Fáil had usually held around 40 per cent of the State's European Parliament seats, and he hoped this would remain the position on this occasion. This suggests a target of at least five of the 13 European seats.
Asked whether he thought the belief that the Government parties had broken election promises after 2002 would lose the party votes, he remarked that voters were "being reminded of that every day" in the media. He said there were members of the media who never listened to him on this matter.
He said that on the first day of the 2002 general election campaign he had made a speech saying that there had been an enormous downturn in the economy. It was "absolutely clear that I was saying, re-elect us to manage us out of the difficulties. It is two years ago today on a five-year programme."
The Government had already "turned up the economy" and the increasing economic growth, rising investment and falling inflation and unemployment was acknowledged by independent commentators.
It was therefore fairer to say that "Fianna Fáil have kept their promises of stabilising the situation, turning it around and two years into it we are now growing again at pace . . . But if you keep saying that promises that I said I'd deliver in five years haven't been fully done, it is not a fair reflection of what we had in our manifesto or what I said."
Referring to journalists he said this point was not getting through to the public because "every time I say it I can't get you to write it, but I keep trying. That's why I keep on saying it. Unfortunately, unlike every other major party in Europe we don't have a paper that puppets what we say, so I just have to use press conferences such as this and the Dáil to try to prove that I'm right.
"If I'm wrong give me the figures and quote the authoritative source. All I am doing is to explain the position as it is, and all the economic indicators say that this is the most successful Government in Europe across all indicators, but you and members of the media would say that I'm breaking promises . . . The only thing I have to fight is an unfair position where people say that I broke promises. I'm saying that I haven't."
He said Ireland had small representation in the European Parliament, and therefore needed "people who are positive, who are intelligent . . . not people who go around whingeing, moaning and decrying everything." He said Europe was growing into a larger and more influential bloc that would affect the economy, the environment and social policy in Europe, and Ireland had to be at the heart of it.