FINE GAEL was “putting the door on the latch” for co-operation with Fianna Fáil after the general election, according to Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore.
When asked to comment yesterday on indications from Fianna Fáil that it would support a Fine Gael minority government after the general election, he said it was more properly a question for the main Opposition party.
“It does seem to me that some of the choreography in recent days has certainly opened up the prospect that Fine Gael would allow Fianna Fáil back into government through the side-door,” he told a news conference in Dublin.
“The Labour Party has been very clear in relation to Fianna Fáil: because of the damage that Fianna Fáil has done to the Irish economy, they must be put out of office. We have been determined in stating this.
“I can only interpret Fine Gael’s statements in the last 24 hours, in relation to the Labour Party’s view of the economy, where effectively they are supporting the Fianna Fáil approach in relation to the EU-IMF deal, as facilitating, or putting the door on the latch, as far as Fianna Fáil is concerned,” Mr Gilmore said.
Fine Gael’s director of elections Phil Hogan said the Labour leader “would do well to remember that the last time Fianna Fáil was vulnerable, it was his party that ran into government with them in 1992 despite having stood on an anti-Fianna Fáil ticket during the election campaign.
“Enda Kenny made it patently clear over the weekend on a number of occasions that Fine Gael will be entering into no agreement of any description with Fianna Fáil on any issues after the general election,” said Mr Hogan.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams appealed for an alliance of left wing parties and candidates. He quoted socialist and trade unionist James Connolly who called for a unity of the left, many decades ago. “And that’s as relevant today as it was then,” Mr Adams said.
Launching “Labour’s Plan for Digital Ireland”, Mr Gilmore said his party’s policy on broadband was an example of government helping the private sector but not replacing it. “If anything comes even remotely close to Fianna Fáil’s disastrous handling of the banks it is their failure on broadband,” Mr Gilmore said.
“To have governed a country over a period when there was economic growth, to have taken over the Irish economy in 1997 from Ruairí Quinn at a time when we were creating 1,000 jobs per week; when our public finances were back in the black; when the Irish economy was growing and not to have done what was needed on broadband, is an absolute shame,” he added.
Ireland was now 22nd out of the 30 countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in terms of broadband access.
A new company called NetCo would be set up, which would be “essentially a private-sector solution to the delivery of broadband in Ireland”. Labour’s communications spokeswoman Liz McManus said: “There is a big challenge ahead of us, it is called next-generation broadband.” Labour was setting out its approach to meeting that challenge.
DIGITAL IRELAND LABOUR'S PLAN
1 Promote the establishment of NetCo, a new private company to begin the roll-out of next-generation broadband
2 Develop a broadband rating system for every property being sold or rented
3 Appoint a chief information officer to encourage cloud computing and e-government
4 Make a Digital Single Market one of Ireland’s priorities in its European agenda
5 Encourage investment in next-generation broadband by facilitating the appropriate regulatory culture
