Fine Gael offers competent, effective government - Noonan

Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats have squandered the recent economic boom and failed the people of Ireland, the Fine Gael leader Mr Noonan said tonight.

Speaking at the party’s 71st Ard Fheis, Mr Noonan criticised the Government for its record on health, crime and public spending and said Fine Gael’s vision for the future would draw on the strengths of its political history.

The Government’s approach to health, he said, pursued a deliberate industrial relations strategy that drove nurses, junior doctors and teachers into industrial action.

Fine Gael in Government will double the income limits for medical cards and extend free GP services to those under 18-years-of-age and all those over 65, said Mr Noonan.

I made a mistake in the handling of the case of the late Mrs Brigid McCole Mr Michael Noonan

The two-tier health system will be unified and Fine Gael will eliminate waiting lists, he said.

Mr Noonan was dismissive of the fighting crime approach by the current Minster for Justice, Mr O’Donoghue. "He denies that street violence is at crisis levels. He denies that only one crime in four is now being reported. He denies that crime statistics do not reflect the reality on the streets," said Mr Noonan.

Fine Gael would give priority to the reduction of street violence. "We will put more guards on the streets especially at night, we will extend the use of CCT cameras, we will establish night courts, we will provide public transport late at night to bring people safely home," he told the delegates at Dublin’s Citywest Hotel.

But his harshest criticism was for the current Government’s handling of the public finances.

"Sometimes I think Fine Gael should establish a sanitary services department, we have to clean up so often after Fianna Fáil", Mr Noonan quipped.

"Last year public expenditure increased by 22 per cent and revenue by only 2 per cent and this under a government elected on a commitment to increase public expenditure by no more than 4 per cent per annum," he said.

In Government he said, Fine Gael will be prudent financial managers. "Spending increases of the present magnitude in excess of 20 per cent per annum cannot be allowed to continue."

In relation to taxation, Mr Noonan said an intermediary tax bracket between the lower and the upper rates, at approximately 30 per cent, would be considered.

Mr Noonan also directly addressed the renewed controversy over his handling of the case of Brigid McCole, who died after becoming infected with hepatitis C, the first time he has spoken on the event since RTÉ's No Tearsdramatisation.

He said the individual should not have to confront the State to have his or her rights recognised, giving the example of Mrs Sinott seeking proper education for her son Jamie.

"In such a conflict between the State and the individual I made a mistake in the handling of the case of the late Mrs Brigid McCole.

"As I have said on more than one occasion, I deeply regret that I handled it the way I did and I again sincerely apologise to the McCole family for the grief caused to them."

I now challenge the Taoiseach to debate the issues [on abortion] with me on television in a head to head debate. Mr Noonan

"This has been one of the most significant experiences in my personal and political life and I want to assure you that any Government I may lead will not make a similar mistake in the future," he said.

The "besmirching of politics . . . principally by the Fianna Fail Party members . . . and the lurid tribunal scandals", will only be reversed when the perceived link between political contributions and public policy is broken, Mr Noonan added.

"Fine Gael no longer accept corporate donations and we limit personal donations to the lowest possible level consistent with the individual’s constitutional right to assembly," said Mr Noonan, and he called on all other parties to support such legislation.

Mr Noonan said the upcoming abortion referendum is unnecessary, and should be rejected out of hand.

He suggested one possible reason for the lack of information on the upcoming abortion referendum was that the Government does not want the people fully informed.

"If the referendum succeeds it will introduce uncertainty into the Constitution. A future Supreme Court may interpret the accompanying Act in a variety of ways. I believe that the Dáil, not the Supreme Court, is the appropriate place for decisions on issues as sensitive as abortion," he said.

He also called on the Taoiseach to debate the issue directly with him on television.

"One of the most disturbing things about the campaign to date is the lack of information available to the public because of the Government's failure to set up the Referendum Commission. It is as if the Government did not want the people to be fully informed," Mr Noonan said.

In a speech interrupted regularly by applause, Mr Noonan quoted from the American writer Mark Twain, when he observed, "rumours of our demise have been greatly overstated".