WITHIN minutes of returning from Aras an Uachtarain where he obtained a dissolution of the Dail, Mr Bruton told a joint meeting of the Coalition's three parliamentary parties that jobs were to be "the centrepiece" of his Government's plan for the next five years.
"We want to halve unemployment. We want to continue to increase the number at work by up to 1,000 per week each week over the next five years, just as we have done over the past 2 1/2 years," he added.
Emphasising the stability of the outgoing administration, he warned that "the alternative", no matter what it promised, would not endure long enough to deliver. "You cannot depend on it," he said.
His Government, by contrast, was "dependable" on crime, tax, social security and on the management of the "Northern problem and on the protection of the institutions of the State and its people".
"This partnership Government is about uniting all our people. The haves and the have nots. Bigger take home wages and salaries for all, not just lower tax rates on paper for top earners. That's the aim of our tax policy," Mr Bruton said.
Above all their objective for the millennium must be to build a "decent" society in Ireland. They did not want a class ridden nation which shuts some people out either because of educational background or where they come from.
The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, said the Government leaves behind a legacy of fundamental change across the entire social and economic spectrum. All of this had been for the better.
"As someone who has been involved with the peace process since it began, I am particularly proud of the steadfast way in which this Government has stayed true to the objective of an inclusive settlement based on consent," he said.
Achieving lasting peace remained the greatest challenge and the Government had, he claimed, the will and commitment to succeed in bridging the gap that still remains.
The Democratic Left leader and Minister for Social Welfare, Mr De Rossa, said it was a measure of the maturity of Irish political life that they were together as a Government. "I hope it also serves as an example to political movements in this island whose commitment to democracy is still ambivalent. In democratic politics and in government, it is possible to redress the past and shape the future," he added.
In the Rainbow Government, men and women from "socialist, social democratic and Christian democratic beliefs" had come together to give of their best and to give the people of Ireland good, principled and effective government" - Their ambitions had been largely achieved but they still had work to do on employment, take home pay, poverty and inequality.
Nobody would find them "throwing tantrums" when one or other did not get their way in government.
The electorate could opt for the outgoing arrangement or an alternative, "a right of centre government whose emphasis is on competitive individualism at the expense of society's most vulnerable members and whose record together in government is one of constant feuding".