Madam, - The reaction of Fine Gael and Labour to comments made about their economic record and their refusal to publish a costed policy programme has been typically over the top and brazen.
They have been busy briefing and writing that they have a fantastic economic record. This doesn't stand up to the most basic scrutiny.
The last time a Fine Gael/Labour coalition was elected it left us with the highest debt per capita in the world - higher than even Ethiopia and Sudan at the time of Live Aid. This was a government, which Ruairi Quinn, so indignant in last Thursday's Letters page, walked out on because it wasn't proposed to spend even more.
The skilled revisionists of Fine Gael/Labour are now seeking to paint their brief tenure in the mid-1990s as a time of milk and honey for us all. They neglect to point out that unemployment was 10 per cent in their last year in office, with half of that being made up of long-term unemployment.
In spite of promises of significant tax reductions, they managed only a 1 per cent cut. Social welfare increases were lower in both relative and absolute terms and cuts were imposed.
While Ruairi Quinn is right that he announced a target of a Budget surplus in 1997, he conveniently ignores the spate of last-minute spending announced in an attempt to prevent looming defeat at the polls. What he also ignores is that he and the Labour Party consistently attacked Fianna Fáil for choosing to run budget surpluses and lower the national debt. He himself described the substantial programme of income tax cuts we implemented in 1998-2002 as having been "unnecessary".
Sending a letter to the European Commission a few days before an election saying that you would like to have a 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate is not the same as "negotiating" it. In fact, we negotiated it in tough negotiations in 1997 and at various times Labour called for postponement or abandonment of the reductions we subsequently implemented.
There are simply a huge number of instances in which both Fine Gael and Labour have opposed economic policies that have delivered the most sustained period of growth in our history and enabled ongoing investment in public services such as pensions, education and health. No amount of bluster or briefings can challenge this.
What the Irish people are rightly more concerned with is the future, so it is perfectly legitimate for Fianna Fáil to ask Fine Gael and Labour to produce their alternative joint programme for Government before the election. The Irish people are entitled to see the exact substance of the Mullingar Accord.
Pat Rabbitte's assertion that Fine Gael and Labour would not produce detailed policies at this stage flatly contradicts the promise made by Enda Kenny early last year to expand their co-operation "over the next 18 months into a comprehensive programme".
Equally, Enda Kenny's assertion that Fine Gael is "ready for government" cannot be justified in the absence of any programme - and a short document on social partnership full of warm words and empty platitudes does not count as a first instalment.
The refusal of Messrs Rabbitte and Kenny to put their cards face up on the table for the Irish people to see contrasts with the record of Fianna Fáil in opposition during the Rainbow government. Then, Fianna Fáil, published more than 40 separate policy papers on a very wide range of issues. We made substantive proposals including the establishment of a Criminal Assets Bureau, a Food Safety Authority, and substantial personal tax reductions.
These two parties have had three years to think about what, if anything, they might have to offer the Irish people in government. They have been co-operating for over a year and have held several press conferences and photo opportunities to that effect. But photographs are no substitute for policy. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'DONOGHUE TD, Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Dáil Éireann, Leinster House, Dublin 2.