THE following is an edited version of the speech by Ms Mary Harney, leader of the Progressive Democrats:
THE present economic indicators are good; indeed it would be strange if they weren't, with low international interest rates, low international inflation and a yearly financial bonanza of £2 billion from Brussels. The conventional wisdom is that we have never had it so good.
Despite this economic miracle, we have a social nightmare. The "haves" are happier, but the "have nots" have been cut adrift. Despite the economic boom, we have social bust. A quarter of a million people in this booming country do not have a job.
Team Ireland, it seems, has plenty of players, but thousands upon thousands of them have been left on the bench, abandoned to unemployment, to poverty, to social exclusion. A caring society, a compassionate society, a concerned society cannot tolerate this social decay.
Two Brave Women
This very year, we had a stark reminder of what happens when we let things step out of control. Last June, journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered. She paid the ultimate price for pursuit of truth. But, Veronica did not die in vain. As a direct result of her murder, this State has seen the greatest ever shake up in its criminal laws.
Last September, a brave mother of 12, Brigid McCole, died from hepatitis C. Brigid was infected with the killer disease after receiving contaminated blood product. She was an innocent victim of State incompetence. All she really wanted was an admission of liability and an apology.
Two brave women helped make 1996 the year when outstanding personal qualities made the State take stock. But, it shouldn't take such individual acts of courage for the right thing to happen. The State, if it is to be anything, must always defend and support its own people. It must support and provide real leadership. In 1996 this leadership was left to two brave women.
A New Vision For a New Century
At the threshold of the 21st century, what we in Ireland need most is real leadership.
Tonight, I want to spell out my vision for Ireland. I want an Ireland that offers opportunities for everyone. I want an Ireland that allows everyone to taste the fruits of our economic success. I want an Ireland that gives all our children early access to education, not Just those whose parents can afford it.
I want an Ireland which opens the doors of our universities to students from every social background. I want an Ireland in which everyone has a chance to work for a living, not a country that leaves hundreds of thousands bf people on the social scrapheap.
I want an Ireland where criminals are punished and law abiding people are protected. I want an Ireland where people are rewarded for their efforts, not hammered by the taxman for their hard work. I want an Ireland that really does cherish all its children equally. I want an Ireland of real diversity.
I want to see an island at peace with itself, an island where all traditions are respected, an island where all traditions can express themselves.
Most of all, I want a country built on the twin values of respect and responsibility.
In a healthy society, children will respect their parents pupils will respect their teachers and people will respect the Garda. In a healthy society, too, people will have respect for politicians.
We don't have that healthy society today.
A New Deal For Ireland
There is a real sickness in our society. We need a new deal to rid our country of that sickness. We need a new deal between the people of Ireland and their government.
We need a new deal between the State and the individual, between the family and society, one which touches on every aspect of our lives, which will bring about a profound change in our country's fortunes, which maps out a new direction and helps us make fur own history. We must have the self confidence to take control of our own destiny, to become the authors of our own history.
The family has a vital part to play. The PDs in government would work to ensure that our tax and welfare system supports rather than penalises the family.
A New Deal on Crime
In a true democracy, the first and primary duty of government is the protection of its citizens. Look at what is happening on our streets.
We need a new deal that is capable of protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty.
The PDs have consistently supported tough measures in the fight crime. Next Thursday you against will get a chance to play your part in that fight. I want you to vote Yes to changing the bail laws.
We must become less obsessed with the rights of criminals and much more concerned with the rights of the ordinary, law abiding person.
Changing the bail laws on its own will not be enough, however. We need more prison spaces. Extra prison accommodation doesn't have to mean extra spending.
Our new deal would close any place of entertainment - discos, pubs and clubs - where drugs are habitually available.
Our new deal would make it clear that the abuse of drugs means financial ruin for those business people who would prefer to turn a blind eye.
Our new deal would involve publishing the names and addresses of drug offenders in the same way as we publish the names and addresses of tax offenders.
Our new deal would involve exemplary sentencing for drug trafficking and importation. Ireland must never be seen as a pushover for pushers.
Our new deal would ensure that our prisons are drug free. Our new deal would put an end to drug dealing on our streets.
A New Deal For the Over 65s
Nobody has suffered more at the hands of criminals than our old people.
Why should our retired people be penalised through our tax system for saving during their working careers? The PD new deal for the elderly would mean a substantial reduction in the tax burden on pension income. We want the elderly to be able to live out their retirement in dignity and security without having to worry about the State confiscating their savings.
A New Deal In Education
I want to see a new deal in education, that will involve a real debate. The education debate is obsessed with how the system is organised.
All our children should have access to information technology. If we do not computerise our schools, we are heading down an educational cul de sac.
We should use information technology to reduce educational disadvantage, not to increase it. Computerising schools in the more deprived areas would give children in those schools a real chance to overcome educational disadvantage.
In 10 years, a young person who is not computer literate will be at the same disadvantage as a person who cannot read or write today.
A New Deal For The Unemployed
I believe that every school leaver signing on for the first time should be required to work for their dole money, either on Community Employment or by attending a recognised training course. The taxpayer has no duty to pay anything to able bodied people who are perfectly capable of working but who are not prepared to do so.
We have a State which promotes idleness not effort. Our tax system is a dinosaur of dependency, totally unsuited for the challenges of the 21st century.
In time we recognised that a low pay job is better than a no pay job.
A New Deal For Workers
We must face up to the fact that our tax system is killing the will to work.
We have tax breaks for moviemakers, tax breaks, for property developers, tax breaks for foreign corporations, tax breaks for international finance companies. Why can't we have tax breaks for the ordinary working people of this country? We now live under the most taxing administration in the history of the Irish State. In the last two years, this Government's total tax take has gone up by 18 per cent, more than four times the rate of inflation over the same period.
We tax work as if it were a luxury. We need a tax system that rewards people for working, not one that penalises them.
Our new deal will mean two new tax rates of 20 per cent and 40 per cent. Don't believe the prophets of doom who tell you that it cannot be done. If they taxed their brains half as much as they taxed your earnings it could be done. What good is there in having a growing economy if the working people of this country are not allowed to enjoy the fruits of that growth in the form of lower income tax?
A New Deal on Public Spending
For our new deal, we must face up to the fact that radical tax reform cannot be reconciled with rampant growth in public spending. Up to now, we have opted for big government, big bureaucracy, big taxes.
A new deal for the State Sector
It is time for a new deal for State companies.
In the modern world there is no rationale for State involvement in the running of hotels fertiliser factories, and other commercial enterprises.
This country has a huge national debt of £30 billion. Half of all the income tax paid by the PAYE sector is swallowed up paying the interest on that debt each year.
I believe in privatising some of our state companies and using the money to reduce that debt.
Privatisation is the order of the day right round the world. Governments of every political stripe recognise that bureaucrats have no place in business.
Go to Hungary. Just seven years ago it was a communist state. Now, it is within a year of completing a £5 billion privatisation programme. How ironic it is to see our very own ESB helping the Hungarians to privatise their electricity industry. So, who's afraid of privatisation? I'll tell you who. There are only a few of them left. The Bulgarians and the Romanians, for instance. And, of course, closer to home, political leaders like Dick Spring and Proinsias De Rossa.
A new deal for Small Business
Euro directives, for the most part, don't cause us problems. But there is some lunacy coming from Brussels these days. The latest brainwave is the working hours directive. On the face of it, this seems like a benign piece of legislation from a worker's point of view, whatever employers might think. In practice, however, the picture is not quite so rosy. The average industrial worker will now find that his opportunities for overtime are severely limited. Some will suffer a loss of overtime, some will suffer a loss in weekly earnings, and some will suffer the loss of their jobs. It's a health issue, we are told. But I can think of no bigger threat to a person's health than a drop in earnings or being put on the dole.
The working time directive will play havoc with manpower planning for many industries. Reputable companies - and they tend to be the best paying employers - will be forced to increase their charges dramatically to implement the directive. As sure as night follows day, these firms will lose business to the unscrupulous operators who couldn't care less about European directives, or any of the rest of the paper that flows out of Brussels. Regulations like this we can do without. It is time we told the Brussels mandarins that enough is enough.
Adopting silly directives makes life difficult for the real heroes of the Irish economy - small business people.
I want to see a new deal for small and medium enterprises, for those who own them, those who manage them and those who work in them.
Our anti enterprise tax regime discourages investment and risktaking. It rewards people for playing it safe and penalises them for taking risks. Our business people need less taxation, less regulations and less bureaucracy.
A new deal for consumers
I want to see a new deal for Irish consumers.
We still do not have an independent body monitoring food quality. Why? Because no one was prepared to stand up to the vested interests in the Department of Agriculture. That Department has suffered a huge loss in public credibility in recent times. Yet it retains responsibility for food inspection from the farm to the factory. This is not good enough.
A New deal for Northern Ireland
The greatest political challenge that confronts this island is solving the on going conflict in Northern Ireland.
People often say I am too tough on Sinn Fein, too outspoken in my views on the republican movement. But my views are formed by what I see happening around me. I want to call on the IRA to put down its guns and banish its bombs for good. Forget about formulas, and conditions. You are either for democratic, peaceful politics or you're not.
You're either for violence or against it. You cannot have an each way bet on this peace process.
You can't continue to turn on and off the tap of terror as it suits you. It is now make your mind up time. Do you want war or do you want peace? Which is it to be? Because there is no place at the talks table for people who use peace and violence as interchangeable political tactics.
It is time the constitutional politicians began addressing the substance of the political settlement that's necessary to transform Northern Ireland.
We must move away from tissues of definition, where there will never be agreement, to issues of substance where, with good will, there is obvious potential for substantial agreement.
We must address the reality of compromise and the substance of peace. The priority now is to concentrate on the real political agenda. I am sick and tired of the "not an inch" politics of the main unionist parties, of their stonewalling and their name calling. It is high time that the British government told the unionists - "your membership of the Union carries a price". And that price means creating a real partnership society in Northern Ireland.
A New deal for Irish Politics
We want normal politics in Northern Ireland. But politics in the Republic also needs to be transformed.
The three main pillars of any democracy are good government, vigilant opposition and a free press.
If one of these pillars collapses, our democracy could be destroyed.
Good government is decision making government; ground breaking government; risk taking government - government that gets to grips with the problems besetting society.
But what have we been treated to over the last few months? We have had 3-D government dodging, dithering, disaster driven government, government that has stumbled from crisis to crisis.
The present Government came into office because of a crisis of accountability and responsibility. They gave people a solemn commitment to deliver accountability.
All the talk about accountability was just hot air. Ask anyone to take responsibility, and there are no takers.
Just look at the record.
What we are witnessing is government that has lost its grip.
It seems John Bruton's pane of glass could do with a visit from the window cleaners.
Just this very week, we weren't even able to ask the Taoiseach questions in the Dail about officeholders he is responsible for. That is as bad as things get.
Let me make it clear - the PDs will continue to ask the hard questions.
That's our duty and we take it seriously. It was the PD questions which got to the truth about the shredded Duncan extradition warrant. It was PD questions which uncovered the failure of the Attorney General's office to reply to victims of Brendan Smyth last year.
It was the PD questions which bled to the discovery that the Minister for Agriculture wasn't present at the VIP lounge at Dublin Airport for the negotiations with the Russians. He was in a lounge all right, but it was a lounge bar in Enniscorthy.
Some people mightn't like the cut and thrust of political debate, but we won't be silenced. Lazy, laid back opposition is a threat to democracy. The day questions stop being asked is the day this democracy of ours dies.
Too many people in Ireland feel nothing changes in politics. And it is true that if you keep on voting the same way, nothing will change.
While no party has a monopoly of concern for the social problems that confront us today, there is major difference in how we believe those problems should be tackled.
The Progressive Democrats believe the State should take a backseat in people's lives.
We believe in less taxation; in less bureaucracy; in less regulation.
We believe in greater independence and greater choice for the individual.
I believe in hard work, self reliance. I believe in people getting on with their own lives.
But I also believe we have responsibilities to serve our wider community.
And I believe in respect for others.
These are the basic values which underpin the politics of the PDs.