Leaders' TV debate:Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny clashed over health, crime and the state of the economy in their head-to-head TV debate last night. Michael O'Reganand Marie O'Halloranreport.
Mr Ahern insisted that the health service was not a shambles, but that there were some parts where there were "difficulties".
Mr Kenny said health was the biggest failing of the Government.
During the debate, Mr Ahern insisted that "my energy levels are as good as they ever were".
He said that he was "as excited now as I was 10 years ago" when it was put to him that a decade was long enough as Taoiseach.
"I've said I will stay active in political life til I'm 60. That's a long way away."
Mr Ahern said the country had been transformed since he took over - the economy was strong and 600,000 more people were working.
He also stressed that he had worked hard and came from an ordinary working-class background.
Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny denied that he had little experience for the job compared to previous party leaders.
He said he had had a "long apprenticeship", and that "leadership is about decisiveness" and having a vision and ability to "pick your team".
Mr Kenny would bring "a new freshness, a new energy and a new motivation" to the role - he said he had "acquired that experience over the years".
Defending his Cabinet experience, he said he was minister for trade in the Bruton government and did "big trade with Northern Ireland when times were difficult, shifted the balance from Britain to Europe, chaired the World Trade Organisation talks".
Mr Ahern stressed that things could not be improved "unless you run a good economy", when asked about his "bottom line" for government.
He said that "we know how to run the economy".
Mr Kenny said that it took 20 years for the country to recover from the profligacy of the Fianna Fáil government and Fine Gael had had to "bail out" and had handed over a healthy economy.
Defending his "contract with the people", the Fine Gael leader said "no person in this country has every set his or her head on the block the way I have" and said that could be viewed as courageous or madness.
Asked who was going to decide on the contract, Mr Kenny said it would be "self-evident" if the 14 promises he made had been met.
Defending his personal financial affairs, Mr Ahern said that "I did not receive a glass of water from Owen O'Callaghan", the property developer.
He said that he had been asked three questions: why he did not use his bank accounts - "because my bank accounts were in my joint names with my wife"; why did friends give him loans - "which I paid back, because I was separated"; and why did he rent a house - "if you're separated and you're not living in your own house, you have to rent a house or buy".
Mr Kenny denied that he had failed to give leadership on the issue of the Taoiseach's finance.
"I said I would fight the election on political issues," he said, adding that the the Dáil had set up a tribunal.
In his opening statement, Mr Ahern said he believed that Ireland's hour has come. "We are building a new nation, more prosperous, more peaceful and more hopeful than ever before.
"In 10 years, we have moved from unemployment and under-investment to sustained economic growth."
Mr Kenny said that one of the problems so many people had with politics was that they believed nobody took responsibility.
"Well, I will, because I understand that your lives and our country's future are much more important than my political career."