THE leader of the Progressive Democrats has marked the opening of this weekend's annual party conference with a blistering attack on what she termed "this fiasco-ridden" Government.
Speaking in Bunratty, Co Clare, last night Ms Mary Harney again targeted the Labour Party, saying lamentable ministerial failures carried no sanction "unless they bruise the ego of Dick Spring or some other senior Labour Party figure.
"We are being treated at the moment to cute play-it-by-ear politics from Labour. The change they promised is now but a distant memory as they scurry for cover when any crisis erupts and outsprint each other in the race for political survival," she said.
Identifying the real choice for voters as between the Progressive Democrats and Labour, Ms Harney told her audience that her party represented "new policy-driven politics", while Labour only had "the failed old ways".
It was clear the next government would be a coalition; Labour stood for high spending, high-tax policies while the Progressive Democrats stood on a lower spending, lower taxation platform.
"Labour have had their chance, having been in power for nearly 10 of the last 15 years. It is time the Progressive Democrats were given the opportunity to implement their policies," Ms Harney said.
Her party was different because it believed the State did not have the answer to everything but was there to serve the individual - not the other way around. It believed in risk-taking, "ground-breaking government which provides people with greater freedom to live their own lives".
Meanwhile, "accountability" had been "shattered to smithereens" by a series of monumental ministerial failures, she claimed. "This Government promised it would scale unprecedented heights when it came to accountability, yet the reality is that it has quickly become one of the most secretive administrations in the history of the State."
The first evidence of slipping standards came in May 1995 in the Dail when the Taoiseach Mr Bruton - "the supposed champion of Dail reform" - evaded questions about the delay in the Attorney General's office replying to correspondence from the families of victims of the paedophile priest, Brendan Smyth.
Ms Harney identified the collapse of the Anthony Duncan extradition case, the hepatitis C scandal and the Russian ban on beef exports from three counties as further proof of a Government failing to accept its political responsibility.
In the past fortnight, political responsibility was "conveniently set aside" when the Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, failed to accept culpability for the lapse in her Department which led to the Special Criminal Court being improperly constituted for a three month period.
"This was no ordinary matter. The possibility now exists, because of the Minister's incompetence, that any of 17 people facing serious criminal charges could walk free. This alone is sufficient to warrant the resignation of the Minister. Yet, once again, the Government has closed ranks and dismissed as opportunistic the attempts by the Opposition to get some genuine acceptance of political responsibility," Ms Harney said.
The Progressive Democrats conference continues today, concentrating on crime, the economy and Northern Ireland.