THE COUNTRY cannot afford to have Fianna Fáil in office any longer, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny declared yesterday.
Speaking before his parliamentary party’s annual gathering at Faithlegg House Hotel in Co Waterford, he said a change of Government was now urgently required.
“The country cannot afford Fianna Fáil any longer nor can our economy afford Anglo Irish Bank,” said Mr Kenny.
He accused former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, current Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan of gross incompetence and “off the wall” policies that had brought the country to its present state.
“My message today is that this party is on an election footing. My message to all our supporters, candidates and members of our Oireachtas party is to prepare for an election which may not be too far distant in the future.”
Mr Kenny said that 20 months ago Fine Gael had called for Anglo Irish Bank to be wound down, but a monumental disaster had been allowed to unfold by a Government with no competence and no plan.
He said that Fine Gael was the only party that could guarantee real change in Ireland and it had come up with clear positions on banking, jobs, the public finances and political reform.
“This is a party with a clear and definite plan to fix a broken country,” said Mr Kenny, who added that he would be seeking a clear mandate in the forthcoming election to implement Fine Gael policies and give the country the sense of direction it required.
He added that the party had done a lot of work to prepare for a general election and would now be doing everything possible to bring it about.
Mr Kenny added that he had got the imprimatur of his parliamentary party to refuse pairs for crucial Dáil votes, except in circumstances where Ministers had to be absent for issues of national importance.
The Fine Gael leader insisted that Fine Gael had moved on from the recent challenge to his leadership and he rejected the suggestion that it was “a broken party” as a result of the attempted heave.
“We have moved on and we are focused on the job,” said Mr Kenny, who added that Fine Gael was working hard to prepare for the election and for taking the reins of government.
He pointed to the forecast of former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald, based on opinion polls and the local election results of last year, that Fine Gael would have won up to 70 seats if an election were held in recent months.
Mr Kenny said if recent reports that the Government intended to hold the three outstanding byelections were correct, then a general election was not far off.
At their meeting yesterday Fine Gael TDs and Senators were given a presentation by the party’s national organiser Frank Flannery about plans for the election campaign.
There was also a detailed discussion on a constituency-by-constituency basis about the party’s prospects.
The latest developments in the Anglo Irish Bank situation were also discussed and there will be a longer discussion on the banking crisis today when the politicians are addressed by the former head of the National Treasury Management Agency, Michael Somers.