In Monday's Irish Times, Dermot Ahern, the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, attempted to portray himself as a champion of the poor and underprivileged.
For those of us who have carefully watched Fianna Fail in government over the past four years, this was a piece of revisionist history par excellence. There are a number of gaps in the story that need to be told.
Mr Ahern decries the efforts of the Rainbow government in dealing with social exclusion. He forgets that it was Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left which initiated the National Anti-Poverty Strategy which his Government has followed ever since. Nothing had been done to confront the drugs crisis until the Rainbow government provided funding to establish local treatment centres.
But he missed one central point: in the three years that the Rainbow government was in office, Budget deficits were the order of the day.
It was the successful handling of the Irish economy between 1994 and 1997 which gave this government the fantastic opportunity to transform this society in terms of improved social services and providing for greater income distribution.
Last year, the Government had a Budget surplus of £4 billion. Much of this has been frittered away in following a tax policy which is fuelling inflation and additional wage demands.
Until quite recently, Dermot Ahern was a mohair suit man in the classical Fianna Fail tradition. Most people on social welfare or on small incomes will find it difficult to believe that Fianna Fail wants to reposition itself in advance of the next general election.
No amount of spinning from Mr Ahern can hide the fact that the gap between rich and poor has grown during his stewardship of the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs.
Ireland today is a more divided society than four years ago.
How can he boast about the last four years when 250,000 Irish children live in households below half the average income? Where spending in the area of social provision as a percentage of GDP has actually reduced since this Government has come to office? Where Ireland has the smallest number of hospital beds per capita in the EU? Where the national housing list has grown by over 50 per cent in four years? Where a sporting organisation can get £60 million at the drop of a hat when there aren't enough units for disturbed children in the State?
Are these not examples of the ever-increasing gap in our society?
True to form, Fianna Fail, the party which decries those who work against poverty as the "poverty industry", does not see the upsurge in the economy as an opportunity to end social exclusion. Ireland props up the bottom of the EU league in terms of social spending.
Unlike Fianna Fail, Fine Gael believes poverty cannot be eliminated by tinkering with social welfare rates. This is the fundamental point which Mr Ahern cannot grasp. Of course, the absolute examples of deprivation have reduced over the past 10 years, but the nature and extent of poverty have changed dramatically.
I believe the gap between rich and poor over the past four years has grown because fundamental to this Government's policy is a taxation model which favours the better-off. Tax, not social welfare policy, is driving the engine in Government circles.
Last winter, when the inflation crisis was hitting low-income families, Mr Ahern went to his Government colleagues requesting a package of measures to compensate those affected. His Government colleagues sent him packing. So much for the new-found republican values within Fianna Fail.
Despite what Dermot Ahern thinks, the conservative philosophy of this Government can be seen in the unwieldy axis between the Tanaiste and the Minister for Finance. They have Boston firmly in mind when tax policy is being cooked up.
One question the Minister did not broach on Monday was the subject of individualisation. If it is acceptable to individualise the tax code, why not the social welfare code also? Just as the McCreevy Dirty Dozen, supported by Dermot Ahern, was an example of Fianna Fail social policy, so too is the failure on the part of the Government to individualise the social welfare code.
The Government has a view of the deserving and undeserving poor. When it comes to tax policy, everyone is an individual. When it comes to those who are depending on the State for their income, different rules apply.
After four years in office, this Government has finally moved in the direction of Fine Gael on the issue of increasing child benefit. Mind you, it took it four years to arrive at this position. We see absolute chaos in the area of affordable child care provision, so it is difficult for the Government to claim this issue has been addressed.
When Dermot Ahern was sent packing to London in 1997 to ask hard questions about Ray Burke's finances, he failed to ask the really hard questions. Politicians who can't ask hard questions shouldn't have the neck to criticise others who want answers to fundamental questions about how we create a fairer society.
The Minister likes to portray himself as a tough cop. He is regularly seen taking on the small-time fraudster within the social welfare system. It is a pity that he does not concentrate on the bigger fish closer to his cherished republican home.
As the general election approaches, we are likely to hear further episodes of political fairytales from Dermot Ahern and other members of the bootboy element of Fianna Fail. General health warnings should be issued to all readers of The Irish Times.
Brian Hayes is Fine Gael spokesman on social, community and family affairs.