The Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, took a political risk on Saturday when he pledged to switch three-quarters of the money at present being invested in the National Pension Plan into necessary hospital and health services if returned to government.
It set him at odds with both Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael but, he argued, unless this was done, old people would continue to await medical treatment on trolleys.
He challenged the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern,to say where Fianna Fáil would find the money to invest in healthcare, education and other infrastructural programmes and he accused the Government of engaging in "poppycock economics" by pretending it could meet its targets without borrowing, increasing taxes or cutting spending. There was, Mr Quinn insisted, no such thing as a free lunch and it wasn't possible to have European-style social services on American spending levels.
It was a tough, aggressive approach in which the Labour Party sought to distinguish itself clearly from its major political rivals on economic and social matters. Mr Quinn promised not to increase income and corporation taxes. But he made no reference to capital taxation and said there would be no more tax cuts for the rich and privileged. He committed the party to funding capital projects in the National Development Plan through borrowing and promised to remove workers on the minimum wage from the tax net.
The one-day, pre-election conference was relatively low-key, with Dáil candidates dominating much of the proceedings. They criticised the Government's record and focussed on the party's six election pledges involving a health service on the basis of need; properly-funded education; a more equal society; provision for carers; better childcare and pre-school facilities and housing for all citizens.
Reform of policing through a Garda Authority and a Garda Ombudsman was a priority, Mr Quinn said, and would form part of any coalition negotiations. In the same way, the Labour Party leader reopened the abortion issue and promised to introduce legislation for the "X" case. He regarded the European Union as a place of shared sovereignty and national autonomy, a society that had the capacity to tame the power of global capitalism. Irish neutrality meant peace-keeping and problem-solving with the EU and the United Nations, not leaving world policing to an erratic and unstable administration in Washington.
Across the city, health, childcare, housing, and the future of the island were at the top of Sinn Féin's political agenda when the party president, Mr Gerry Adams, unveiled the party's election platform in Dublin. He said a campaign was being waged against Sinn Féin, linking it to vigilantism, in an attempt to prevent it getting vote transfers. And he insisted the party's mandate would have to be respected if it held the balance of power in the new Dáil. Mr Adams expected a good election and the opinion polls have given him grounds for confidence. A special Sinn Féin delegate conference will be held to decide on entering government, should that issue arise.