Ideology is back in fashion, and not the preserve of the PDs, writes Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent.
In the wake of the local and European elections, some politicians have made notable verbal ventures into ideology, suggesting that there is new life in the old left/right debate about how best to run an economy and a society.
Even Fianna Fáil people, who traditionally protest that they don't so much have a political ideology as common sense, have begun bandying about phrases such as "neo-liberal" and "social democrat".
First we had Minister Dermot Ahern's recent speech, approved by the Taoiseach's Office, hinting at a change of Government direction.
"In economic and social policy Fianna Fáil rejects the notion that the State should take a back seat and allow unbridled market forces shape our country," he declared.
Cabinet colleague Michael McDowell responded swiftly with a call to Ministers not to lose their liberal free-market nerve.
He denounced "social democratic orthodoxy" which, he claimed, had brought misery to the country before the liberal free-marketers took over in 1987.
Now Labour has responded with a lengthy critique of the Government's approach of the past seven years, together with a broad-brush outline of the principles that would underpin its alternative.
First, it dismisses the Ahern/McDowell exchange as part of a "phoney war".
Could it really be that it is only now that those Fianna Fáilers who claim to be on the left have noticed that their Government is heavily influenced by the ideas of the right?
Labour says its alternative "will bring continued economic success", something it must prove if it is to have a chance of successfully challenging the Government's approach.
This alternative "will place a greater value on people, and what they can achieve in their own lives, rather than making them subservient to the demands of an impersonal and unrestrained capitalism".
It questions Mr McDowell's thesis that the PDs' liberal economics were the key to Ireland's economic success. Even Mr McDowell's IBEC speech accepted that other factors, such as sound public finances, social partnership, "generous help" from the EU, direct foreign investment, a stable currency and "a new low-rate approach to personal and corporate taxation", had contributed to the State's economic fortunes.
These things are not the preserve of the PDs, the document says. It was Ruairí Quinn who brought Ireland into EMU, the Rainbow Government that locked it into the 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate, the social democrat instincts of former EU Commission president Jacques Delors that brought the EU money.
And it is the "increasingly neo-liberal tendencies of the Fianna Fáil/Progressive Democrat coalition" that is putting strain on social partnership.
In relation to the Government mantra that low taxes caused the boom, it said: "History is being abused. The reality is the boom came first and was followed by tax reductions ...While lower tax rates may have had a positive impact on employment and domestic consumption, the mechanisms behind the boom were far more complex than cutting taxes and waiting for growth."
Anyway, the expanding household incomes did not tackle many key quality-of-life issues such as housing costs, transport, education, crime and health. The share of national income going into these services has been reduced as a result of a conscious choice by the Government.
The critique is well argued, while the alternative is stated in general terms. Mr Rabbitte said he was "conscious of the necessity to put flesh on the bones of these principles between now and the next general election". But "I don't want to be walled into making hard-and-fast commitments on tax that don't have to be made for two years".
The party's vision, he said, was "built on an innovative, enterprise-based sustainable economy; social solidarity; public provision of certain goods and services; and a commitment to personal liberty". Barriers to everyone fulfilling their potential must be removed.
Competition in most instances is in the interests of consumers; regulation of markets is required. A welfare state must not just be a safety net for those who fall on hard times, but must seek to develop people at every point in their lives. Not just reform but increased investment is needed in public services, with borrowing to fund capital spending.
On the delicate issue of whether it favours more taxation to pay for services, the document says "there may also, however, be a requirement for greater tax revenues".
These could be raised "in the first instance" through developing a fairer tax system, ending tax breaks which benefit the wealthy and getting more revenue from capital gains tax, inheritance tax and profit from land speculation. Those seeking equality should seek not only fairer income distribution, but also a fairer distribution of assets.
It states a commitment to "universal services" - services provided to everyone on an equal basis as a consequence of his or her membership of society, and in return for which they pay taxes. This is in sharp contrast to the view on the political right, which is that more and more of these services should be provided privately, and paid for by the individual. "Our lives cannot be reduced to purely commercial transactions," the document says.
Not every public service can be provided by the State. "But neither can everything be cheese-pared and means-tested to the limit, without a vital element of public good being removed."
There should be access as of right to education, housing, healthcare and a reasonable income.
Just as Fianna Fáil is showing signs of trying to rebrand itself in a more social democratic mould, Mr Rabbitte has moved to claim copyright on this political position. "Loosening the purse strings is not an ideological shift," he warned, but "a euphemism for blowing a lot of taxpayers' money to get Fianna Fáil re-elected....Nothing has changed."
Party activists are conscious of historical evidence that Fine Gael tends to gain more support than Labour when the two parties face the electorate together. Yesterday's document is an attempt to give the party definition so that its message does not get drowned out by the Bertie versus Enda contest.