Ministers in sustained attack on rainbow coalition

FIANNA Fáil unveiled its vision of hell at this weekend’s ard fheis - a government consisting of Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens.

Minister after minister laid into the opposition, issuing dire warnings about the fate that would befall the country if a rainbow coalition was elected.

Environment Minister Dick Roche urged delegates to remember “how bad things were” the last time Fine Gael and Labour completed a full term in government.

“In 1987, when they last left government after a full term, Ireland’s national debt per capita was higher than Ethiopia or Sudan,” he said.

“Every penny paid in income tax and PAYE went on servicing the debt. Over a quarter of a million men and women were unemployed.”

Entrusting the economy to the three parties, he claimed, would see the country being governed by the Marx brothers - “Groucho Rabbitte, Chico Kenny and Harpo Sargent.”

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea warmed to the theme, but opted for a different movie trio.

He described the three opposition leaders as “the Larry, Curly and Moe of Irish politics”.

Rather than dismiss their past record, Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin questioned what current policies the “self-declared alternative government” had.

“They keep repeating that they are offering a radical alternative, but you have to search very hard to find any statement from them on what they propose to do,” he said.

Finance Minister Brian Cowen, Education Minister Mary Hanafin, Agriculture Minister Mary Coughlan, Transport Minister Martin Cullen, Arts Minister John O’Donoghue and Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan also took swipes.

Communications Minister Noel Dempsey, meanwhile, attempted to convince those in the hall that while the party hierarchy was not frightened by the opposition, delegates should be.

“When the opposition attack me, the Taoiseach and my ministerial colleagues, they’re not after us. We’re used to this sort of thing,” he said.

“They’re after you.”