The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern's assertion that he will not directly intervene in the faltering negotiation of a new national pay deal shows there is "not much prospect of success" for a new agreement, Labour Party leader Mr Pat Rabbitte said today.
The Taoiseach today also admitted he was concerned about the talks between unions and employers. "I am a bit pessimistic about them, I am a bit worried about them. The last thing we need to do - in the period where the economy is struggling a bit because of the international situation, not the domestic situation - is to get into a period of strife," he said.
Speaking on RTE radio this afternoon, Mr Ahern said his officials were working with the social partners in an effort to find a solution to the stalled talks but that his intervention would undermine social partnership structures that had evolved over many years. But "I am never that far away," he reminded.
Reacting to the comments, Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach's showed, "it is clear that he must know that there is not much prospect of success on this occasion".
He blamed Mr Ahern for creating some of the problems that led to the impasse in the talks by bowing to pressure from IBEC.
"The real tragedy here is that the climate for successful negotiations could have been greatly improved had the Taoiseach been prepared to take a number of initiatives sought by the trade union movement, including improvements to the Redundancy Payments Scheme and greater protection for workers seeking representation by a trade union," he said.
Mr Ahern also hit back at critics of Government economic policy and the Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevey. Despite what he called the post general election "hammering" the Government received over spending cuts - which he described as "necessary adjustments" - he said he and Mr MCCreevy had been "proved right" by the end of year Exchequer statement published last week, which showed a small surplus.
"They said we were turn a deficit at the end off the year; they said we were going to reduce massively the money spent on health ... the fact of the matter we spent more. We came in on target [and] and ran the economy prudently," he said.