The minister for finance in the last government has accused his successor of contributing to alarm within the business community by refusing to comment on the fluctuations in Irish currency.
"Minister McCreevy's silence is not based on any serious policy consideration," Mr Ruairi Quinn, the Labour Party leader, said last night. "Rather it is a paralysis brought on by his fear that by saying something he will create problems for himself and the Government."
Speaking at UCD last night, Mr Quinn criticised the Government's handling of a number of issues and said it had made successive policy U-turns in the areas of health, justice and the environment.
On the currency issue, he said the Government's policy appeared to be one of laissez faire, meaning literally "let it happen or let it do as it pleases". Mr McCreevy's silence on the issue "questions fundamentally the competence of this Government to conduct the affairs of our economy in a coherent and clear manner".
There were now fears that Irish inflation could rise sharply by the end of this year. This, and in particular the rise in property prices, would inevitably put pressure on the Partnership 2000 deal.
Yet "the first Budget of this Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats Government was to heap scorn on the bequests and concerns of the social partners and to deliberately reward the wealthy at the expense of the many. To add insult to injury, the unilateral decision to reduce capital gains tax by 50 per cent has already further exacerbated tension within our society," Mr Quinn said.
He also criticised the silence of the Tanaiste, Ms Harney, on the Ryanair dispute. "The silence of the Government in respect of Ryanair's refusal to recognise this fundamental right (union recognition), which was first asserted in the general strike of 1913 over 80 years ago, beggars belief."
He said the present economic situation was not unlike the one that faced Fianna Fail when it took office in 1977. Just as the present Fianna Fail-led administration had received an economy that had recovered from an economic crisis and was in good shape, Fianna Fail had also done so in 1977.
"Within a short period of time, because of the overheating of the economy in a reckless manner, the careful economic consolidation of the Fine Gael/Labour coalition was frittered away. The result was a rise in inflation and the collapse of the social consensus which underpinned the labour market at that time."
He warned that this could happen again.