Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday rejected Opposition claims he was lying about their tax policy. Speaking to journalists yesterday during a helicopter tour of five constituencies, Mr Ahern stood over assertions that Fine Gael and Labour tax promises would be of most benefit to wealthier tax-payers.
The Fianna Fáil leader took every opportunity to warn activists against complacency, urging them to ensure a strong turnout and to canvass for preference votes.
Asked about Labour leader Pat Rabbitte's claim that he was telling lies about Fine Gael and Labour's tax proposals, Mr Ahern said: "He's wrong, and I'll put it back to him."
He went on to call the Opposition's tax proposals, which include a proposal to cut the standard rate of tax by 2 per cent, as "progressively anti-the-taxpayer who is paying on low and middle income".
"I know he's embarrassed," he said of Mr Rabbitte. "I know he's upset that Labour got tied in with policies associated with Fine Gael. I never mentioned Labour. . . He can't disassociate himself from Fine Gael policies because he never stood up to them."
He compared these proposals with Fianna Fáil's plans for tax cuts, which also included plans to reform PRSI.
"It always struck me that with the PRSI threshold it was entirely unfair that a person on €40,000 pays the same as what I do on a Taoiseach's salary. And that's not fair."
However in Cork yesterday, Mr Rabbitte accused Mr Ahern of "raiding the social insurance fund while at the same time promising to increase the pension to €300 at the end of the life of the Government. You can't do it and cut the rate of PRSI in half," he said.
Mr Ahern made the comments yesterday morning in Sligo on the first of five stops in the northwest and Border counties.
In buoyant form, Mr Ahern walked through the town at breakneck speed, followed by upwards of 150 supporters who had gathered to greet him at the Cranmore community centre.
Bar some jostling of protesting nurses by a small number of local supporters, there was little to dampen the spirit of the Taoiseach and his canvassing group.
However, his next stop at Monaghan town was more subdued where he visited a school where local Fianna Fáil candidate Margaret Conlon works, and the Kingspan Century Homes factory. The traditional canvass of the town, where a crowd of 400 had gathered to protest over the future of Monaghan hospital, did not take place. The muted visit was in marked contrast to Cavan, where gardaí closed off the main street to facilitate Mr Ahern's walkabout.
The Fianna Fáil leader's tour took on the air of a St Patrick's day parade as the Castletara Youth Band led Mr Ahern and his supporters up the town.
At the beginning of the walkabout Mr Ahern was met by five-month-old twins Calum and Jack Vesey, who clutched Fianna Fáil flags in their fists. As he stopped to admire the twins, Mr Ahern told journalists that his own four-week-old grandsons, Rocco and Jay Byrne, had called in to see him at St Luke's in Drumcondra on their way home from hospital.
In Cavan Mr Ahern gave a barnstorming speech from an outdoor platform to supporters, urging them to maintain their canvassing.
"No match is over till the match is over. So no over-eating, no over-drinking, no over-anything until the polls are closed. We have to maximise every single vote, to win every transfer and to get every doubter out there."