HEALTHCARE:FIANNA FÁIL leader Micheál Martin yesterday accused Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny of having a poor grasp of his own party's health policy. He also ruled out any question of Fianna Fáil supporting Fine Gael's plans to abolish the HSE.
Mr Martin refused to be drawn on whether Fianna Fáil would support a minority Fine Gael government but reiterated his previous position that Fianna Fáil would support any party intent on supporting economic policies similar to their own.
When it was put to him that several economists had remarked on the broad similarities between Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in terms of managing the public finances and reducing the exchequer debt, Mr Martin highlighted differences between the parties on health.
“I’ve significant issues with Fine Gael on their health policy – I heard Enda on the news today and I thought he was a bit all over the place on the health thing – it wasn’t very clear to me that he had a very clear grasp of where Fine Gael health policy was going.
“I’m very concerned about that aspect [health] of the Fine Gael policy platform, which I could not support in any circumstances in the aftermath of the Dáil,” said Mr Martin, adding the party would support any implementation of broader economic issues outlined in its own plan.
Mr Martin played down yesterday's Red C opinion poll in the Sunday Business Post, which showed Fine Gael on 38 per cent and Fianna Fáil down 2 per cent to 15 per cent, and said Fianna Fáil would not be dictated to in its campaign by the polls but would focus on presenting its policies.
Asked if he would contemplate backing a Fine Gael minority government to avoid such an administration being dependent on Independents, he said such a scenario was “hypothetical”, although he did reiterate his concern about Independents holding sway.
“I’m not going into that sort of hypothetical situation – you know my views on Independents. I’ve already made it clear last week that I believe too many of them in the next Dáil could have a negative influence. I’ve said that I’m issue-oriented so I will support the policies that we are now putting forward if they are implemented by whosoever in the next Dáil, I will support the implementation of those ideas, that is my clear position. We will be very consistent on that in the next Dáil because it’s the country and the interests of the people that will come first after the election as far as I’m concerned. I will make my contribution to ensure Ireland gets back to economic recovery as quickly as possible.”
Mr Martin reiterated his belief that continuity and stability in government were essential for economic recovery in terms of both boosting foreign investor confidence and encouraging Irish people to spend in the domestic economy to create further jobs.
Mr Martin also dismissed Mr Kenny’s planned trip to Europe to meet German chancellor Angela Merkel today as a publicity stunt.
