Tánaiste Michael McDowell yesterday launched a blistering attack on the economic policies of the Opposition parties, warning that there would be an "ebbing" in business confidence and a slump "within months rather than years" if they got into government.
Specifically attacking Labour, the Greens and Sinn Féin, he said that if these parties won extra seats in the general election a clear signal would be sent out to the boardrooms, investors, market leaders and entrepreneurs of the world that Ireland had given up on the policies which had brought unprecedented success.
Speaking at a €200-a-plate fund-raising lunch attended by 400 people in his Dublin South-East constituency, he was particularly scathing of Sinn Féin, claiming that its economic policies were "as serious a threat to our economic wellbeing as the IRA's campaign was to the democratic system".
Asked afterwards if he ruled out serving in a government with Labour after the general election, he said: "I am saying very clearly a Fine Gael/Labour/PD coalition would not work, and because it is something that would not work I am not going to give voting for Fine Gael and Labour any credibility that somehow we would come in and support them."
Pressed further if he meant, by saying such a coalition was unworkable, that the PDs would not join, he added: "Yes. I said I would not join it or be part of it."
Last night, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said that Mr McDowell's address was "his single transferable speech", which he must have heard 12 times in the last year. People were not interested in this, but in what the Government would do on health, crime and the crisis in our hospitals.
Mr McDowell warned that if the Irish people sleepwalked into electing a Dáil in which the effective balance of power was given to a "mosaic of parties" which were hostile to enterprise, hostile to multinational presence in Ireland, hostile to foreign direct investment and uninterested in growth and prosperity, any government would reflect those attitudes.
He continued: "Even when some of them promise not to raise some taxes, or indeed but the odd one, they do so through gritted teeth. If we put into the driving seat 'slump-orientated' parties, we will get a 'slump coalition'. And the immediate and inevitable consequence of such a change in direction will be a slump in business confidence, a drying up of investment and enterprise."
Mr McDowell said Labour's slogan "Are You Happy?" showed a veiled hostility to growth, market economics and international investment. "The question amounts to the 'dog whistle!' appeal of the left of 30 years ago," he added.
The Tánaiste said that the PDs in government would keep the country on a fiscally responsible path regardless of economic circumstances. The challenge was to continue to develop in a sustainable manner and in a way which met the needs and expectation of a growing population. "This challenge cannot be met, as some would argue, by adopting an anti-growth and anti-development strategy. Indeed, the reverse is the case."
He said there would not be growth if there was confusion and indecisiveness or if the government was embarrassed by success. "Whoever heard Pat Rabbitte praise enterprise and risk-taking? Whoever heard Trevor Sargent praise our economic achievement? Whoever heard Gerry Adams praise business success?"
Reiterating the PDs' pledge, announced at their annual conference in Wexford, to reduce the two tax rates and widen bands, Mr McDowell said that the measures would over five years ensure that low-income workers paid no tax and that middle-income workers faced a reduced tax burden.
Speaking afterwards about the job losses announced this week Mr McDowell said that the decisions affecting thousands of Irish workers were now taken in boardrooms right across the world.