Labour engage FF in campaign four play

Fianna Fáil engaged in a spot of pre-election mudslinging today with an attack on what it called Labour’s "basketcase of economic plans".

Their spending and taxation plans will cost thousands of jobs, close factories and bankrupt the budget for generations to come. Declares Mr Ahern

But Labour, who may yet find themselves playing footsie with Fianna Fáil after the General Election, retorted with four questions about the economy they said the Taoiseach must answer.

The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, described Labour’s plans as "juvenile" and "deeply irresponsible".

Mr Ahern said: "Their spending and taxation plans will cost thousands of jobs, close factories and bankrupt the budget for generations to come."

Has the Minister for Finance been muzzled or gagged? Why doesn’t Dermot Ahern know what the National Pension Reserve Fund is for? How does he intend paying for the National Health Strategy? Four questions from Mr Rabbitte

He called on Labour leader Mr Ruari Quinn to answer a number of questions including whether the party intended ending social partnership given its proposal to increase PRSI has been denounced by IBEC.

And how Labour can justify "raiding" the National Pension Plan, which is there to pay for pensions now and in the future.

However Labour’s enterprise spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said it was Mr Ahern who was being "juvenile".

Mr Rabbitte said the statement by Mr Ahern marked another chapter in the strange disappearance of the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, from public debate.

Mr Rabbitte said he had four questions for the Taoiseach. "Has the Minister for Finance been muzzled or gagged? Why doesn’t Dermot Ahern know what the National Pension Reserve Fund is for? How does he intend paying for the National Health Strategy?"

But Mr Ahern asked "how Labour can justify increasing the National Debt by 50 per cent" and whether we are all going to pay for this through increased taxes.

Mr Ahern said: "On one of the last occasions they (Labour) were in Government in 1986, we had the highest debt capita on the planet, even higher than Ethiopa and Sudan which had to have Live Aid concerts in 1985."

He said if Labour get back into Government, "we face the prospect of having to get Bono to bail Ireland out as he has done for the Third World".

But Mr Rabbitte countered: "Ethiopa, Sudan and Live Aid. Is this the level of sophisticated debate that Fianna Fáil has sunk to?," Mr Rabbitte asked.

"After all, it was they who ruined the economy in the first place - remember 1977," he said.

"The last time Fianna Fáil were this desperate was when Seamus Brennan issued a statement in 1990 declaring that international capital would flee the country if Mary Robinson was elected," he said.