The Fine Gael and Labour Party leaders yesterday increased the momentum towards agreeing a joint platform for the next general election, pledging to work together to build an alternative government.
Mr Enda Kenny and Mr Pat Rabbitte travelled to Mullingar to hail a power-sharing agreement between their parties on Westmeath County Council as "a good indicator of how enhanced co-operation among the main opposition parties could produce a meaningful and decent alternative to the failed policies of the present Government".
The Mullingar pact is of little significance in itself. The two parties already co-operate with each other on a number of other councils, and they have each recently done similar deals with Fianna Fáil on other local authorities.
However, the two leaders decided to use the Westmeath arrangement yesterday to build what now seems to be an irreversible momentum towards presenting themselves jointly, together with the Green Party, as an alternative government in the next general election campaign.
Mr Rabbitte said the only reason the Green Party was not involved in yesterday's event was that it had no councillors in Westmeath.
Speaking in Mullingar yesterday, Mr Kenny said their alternative would be one "which puts the people's interests first". Mr Rabbitte said it must "reflect decent and human values, as well as possessing competent management skills".
However the Fianna Fáil deputy leader, Mr Brian Cowen, challenged the alternative to "say what it actually stands for, not just what it is against. Sanctimonious posturing is all very fine, but it doesn't deliver on the issues that are of concern to people."
He claimed an accord between Fine Gael and Labour would be "a marriage of convenience" which would fail due to disagreements between the parties on issues such as tax, the public sector, social partnership and neutrality. "So we need to hear from them how they will reconcile such fundamental differences. Then, and only then, will we have a contest of policy and ideas."
However Mr Kenny said the recent local and European election results had sent out a message that "the Irish people are demanding a change of government, and it is our responsibility to build, not just an alternative government, but a better alternative, one which puts the people's interest first."
He said Fianna Fáil's parliamentary party meeting at Inchydoney yesterday and today was designed "to find a way of making politics work for their party". However by doing their deal in Westmeath, Fine Gael and Labour were "making politics work for the people".
Mr Rabbitte said "the construction of an alternative will involve a lot of hard work, and a good deal of policy negotiation". However, the two parties would "put in the work to offer the public a choice based on values and decent policies".
The Westmeath deal was "a checklist of issues raised by people in Westmeath in the last local authority election", the leaders said. It put forward solutions, and showed where the funding for those solutions would come from.