The new leader of the Progressive Democrats, Michael McDowell, has urged Fine Gael voters to back his party at the next election, instead of being tied to Labour, the Greens and far-left TDs whom, he claimed, would threaten the basis of Irish prosperity, writes Stephen Collins, Political Correspondent.
Mr McDowell was elected unanimously as the new leader of the PDs at noon yesterday when no other candidate emerged to challenge him.
At a press conference afterwards, he pledged that the Coalition would continue until next summer. He said he had spoken to the Taoiseach, who is in Helsinki, by phone and had assured him that it was his intention to stand by the commitment made by the PDs to run a full five-year term.
He also made it clear that Mary Harney would stay on as Minister for Health and that the two PD junior Ministers, Tom Parlon and Tim O'Malley, would stay in their posts. The new PD leader maintained that the reality of Irish politics going into the election was that the two largest Opposition parties had been "handcuffed" together in a marriage of convenience in pursuit of office.
"Put bluntly the parties to the Mullingar accord have no credible potential to govern on their own and are desperately seeking to conceal the fact that their only prospect of acceding to office is in conjunction with the Greens and far-left deputies. You can't have one without the other," said Mr McDowell.
He dubbed the opposition alternative a "slump coalition" that would bring the country back to the policies of failure, paralysis and underachievement that had characterised their periods of office in the past.
"To those who have supported the Fine Gael party in the past elections, my message is clear: vote for those whose policies you support and who you know will implement them; reject the strategy of handcuffing yourself to a slump coalition united only in pursuit of office."
The leaders of the alternative coalition congratulated Mr McDowell on becoming PD leader but both promised a stiff fight ahead. Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the test of his leadership would be whether he could deliver on the PD promises to solve the problems in the health service and to reduce the level of crime.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte also congratulated Mr McDowell and said his accession held out the prospect of a clearer choice between those who believed in a fair society and those who believed that a measure of inequality was necessary to drive our economic and political system.