Public services will decide the election, the party believes, writes Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent
Five days into the election campaign confidence oozes from Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte as Fianna Fáil struggles to get its campaign off the ground.
Such is the assurance that remaining differences with Fine Gael on policy issues are waved away not as difficulties, but as another reason to vote Labour.
The launch of Labour's election manifesto The Fair Society in their Baggot Street election headquarters was overshadowed by Fianna Fáil's stormy event in the nearby Mansion House.
The diary clash was always a gamble, and though it did curtail the media coverage of Labour's document, it probably will not be too much of a setback in this marathon three-and-a-half week battle.
Labour is offering a few key messages to voters: a PAYE standard rate tax cut; no extra taxes elsewhere; better public services; more gardaí; cheaper housing for the young. All of this is possible, Labour argues, while State spending increases are gently brought back over time from the rampant leaps of recent years - even if more troubled economic waters lie ahead.
Last year State spending rose by 13 per cent, but Labour promises that it would rise by no more than 8 per cent on average over each of the five years of a Fine Gael-Labour government.
The controversy over Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's personal finances is the elephant in the room in this election, the long-term effects of the nurses' demand for more pay and shorter hours is another.
For now, Labour, like the other parties, are offering soothing noises to nurses that their work can be cut to 35 hours per week, ignoring the fact that all other public servants will seek similar treatment if it is conceded.
Sticking by its promise that 2,300 beds will be created over seven years, Mr Rabbitte insisted that the job could be taken away from the Office of Public Works and Health Services Executive, if necessary.
Instead, the projects could be "farmed out" to the National Development Finance Agency, and the National Treasury Management Agency.
Back in 2002, Fianna Fáil's Micheál Martin trumpeted a plan to create 3,000 beds only for it to emerge later that Charlie McCreevy had made it clear that Martin was writing cheques he could not cash.
Labour, however, has covered both points, in theory at least. The hospitals required can be built for €1.3 billion out of the €2.5 billion already allocated under the National Development Plan.
Beds, of course, require nurses, doctors and porters. The bill here would start cheaply - just €153 million in 2008 - but would rise to €766 million a year by 2012.
Labour's tax plans, already agreed with Fine Gael, are presented as once-off costs, rather than ones that will leave holes in the exchequer accounts in each successive year.
Cutting the standard rate of tax from 20 per cent to 18 per cent over two years will cost €1,023 million once completed; while indexing bands and restructuring credits in favour of one-income families will amount to €1.248 million.
Along with a series of other changes, such as a sharp increase in the home carers' credit, the final bill for tax changes amounts to €680 million a year - a figure Fianna Fáil hotly disputes.
On health, Labour optimistically assumes in the light of past experience that 40 per cent of the population can get medical cards for €421 million a year by 2012, while all under-fives would qualify for just €41 million a year by then.
While all of this is going on, Labour predicts that the Government's accounts, which are expected to be €2 billion in the black this year, will still be in the black by the end - but only just.
Though first circulated nearly three months ago, Labour's plan to help homebuyers purchase properties by instalments has yet to suffer any serious attack from Fianna Fáil, or anyone else.
However, it has not made much of an impression on the electorate either, though that could change if Labour sells its message properly in coming weeks.
Under "The Begin To Buy" scheme devised by Dún Laoghaire TD Eamon Gilmore, people would be able to buy a minimum 25 per cent stake in a house with the State buying the rest.
The State would charge a fee for the aid which would be large enough to encourage individuals to buy out the full stake over time, but smaller than would be charged if they were faced with a full mortgage. Though much of yesterday's package has been unveiled before, along with Fine Gael, or on their own, Labour kept a few ideas back to emphasise their own values.
In particular, the proposal to set up an Open University for Ireland - first thought of by Harold Wilson in the UK in the 1960s - has merit.
So too does the abolition of college fees for older people who were unable, or could not afford, to go to third level in their younger years - particularly since fees for full-time students are a thing of the past.
For now, Labour is happy to emphasise its common approach with Fine Gael, where it exists, but also to emphasise its own values, policies and ambitions. Questioned about abortion, for example, Mr Rabbitte calmly voiced his hope that a termination will be possible for Miss D, who is faced with giving birth to a child who will die within days.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has a more conservative stance but Mr Rabbitte comfortably and confidently argued his own position.
If they agreed on everything they would be one party, he said. Responding to a question about a possible post-election Fianna Fáil-Labour alliance, Mr Rabbitte chuckled at the idea.