The Tanaiste and leader of the Progressive Democrats set out her stall before the electorate at the party's conference in Cork on Saturday and urged voters to support her in building a new republic with the values of fairness, tolerance, equality and opportunity for all. It was a visionary speech, delivered with conviction. But only time will tell whether the party has the capacity to shake off the entropy that has thinned its ranks in recent years. It needs new blood and viable candidates. Most of all, it needs a set of political circumstances that will emphasise its centrality to the workings of government during an election campaign.
Ms Harney has made it clear the party will not enter into a pre-election pact with Fianna Fail and will fight the general election as an independent political party. With that in mind, the Tanaiste is already creating elbow room for the Progressive Democrats. In accepting the proceeds of party fund-raising at the conference, she pointedly remarked the money had been "honestly raised and will be honestly spent. It has not come in a brown envelope". And, as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, edged towards holding another referendum on abortion next year, she promised her party a completely free vote on the matter in the Dail. Abortion was, she said, a matter of private conscience.
But while obvious reservations exist in relation to Fianna Fail, the Progressive Democrats are in the business of being in government and of shaping government policy. The Tanaiste was blunt. The next government would be led by either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael and her party could do business with either. In that context, she launched a comprehensive attack on the Labour Party's proposals for future public spending. Tax reductions, designed to sustain economic growth, would be central to the PD programme for helping vulnerable people and in modernising public services. She believed fair taxes were low taxes. But Labour's discredited tax and spend approach threatened our prosperity.
Much of the weekend was given over to hammering home the message that the economic policies of the Progressive Democrats had laid the foundations for our present prosperity. Since 1985, the workforce had grown by 600,000, taxes had been cut, the level of unemployment had fallen from 17 to 4 per cent and there had been deregulation and privatisation. Key party speakers offered more of the same.
But the Tanaiste also promised short-term specifics. Payments to old-age pensioners would rise to more than £100 a week in the coming Budget. And child benefit would be increased significantly towards a target of £100 a month. Within two years, people earning the national minimum wage of £200 a week would be removed from the tax net. And 80 per cent of workers would pay income tax at the lower rate.
It was an in-your-face speech, aimed primarily at people watching on television. And it effectively marked the start of the Progressive Democrats general election campaign. Technically, the Government has 19 months to run. But, as of last weekend, the clock may be ticking towards a June election.