Opposition parties will again try to move the General Election campaign on to quality of life issues today after attempts to solve the bickering over spending pledges failed last night.
The plan to agree on a panel to provide independent economic analysis of party manifestos broke up in accrimony with all the main parties blaming each other.
Sinn Féin described the proceedings as a "farce" saying "economists are as political as anyone else". Their only TD, Mr Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin, said: "This exercise merely shows the lack of real difference between the conservative parties. This election is about issues. It is not a brawl between accountants".
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Mr Michael Noonan on the
election campaign trail. |
The meeting invovling Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour and the Progressive Democrats collapsed after what Labour described as "terms of reference", could not be agreed.
Fine Gael believes the Government parties have set the agenda for the campaign so far and are determined to move on to quality of life issues today.
They say health is the biggest issue they are confronting on the hustings. Dún Laoghaire/Rathdown candidate Ms Helen Keogh led the offensive this morning with an attack on the Government’s record on health.
"Over the five years they should have spent on reforming our health service, they just threw money at it without attacking the root causes of what is wrong," she said. Later today, the party will unveil a series of youth policies.
Sinn Féin will announce the latest part of their manifesto dealing with the EU. They will address the Nice Treaty, calling for neutrality to be enshrined in law.
Labour’s Mr Eamon Gilmore will outline details of his party's plans for removing means testing for carers. The Green Party will call for a department of consumer affairs that will take responsibility for food safety.
The Government parties also appear willing to move beyond the economic agenda with Fianna Fáil promoting its transport policies and the Progressive Democrats focusing on the need for another social partnership agreement.