Economy in the hands of ‘the Three Stooges’

LABOUR leader Pat Rabbitte claimed last night that the Government’s management of the economy resembles the comic antics of the Three Stooges.

Speaking at the opening session of his party conference in Killarney, he said: "The Taoiseach forgets how long he has had the job, the Tánaiste forgets what she said last year, and the Minister for Finance forgets that the Dáil isn't in Cheltenham."

Mr Rabbitte said we now know the cost of Fianna Fáil's election promises with 15,000 more people out of work and inflation running at twice the European average.

In his first address as leader to the Labour Party conference in Killarney, Mr Rabbitte said the Government was cutting back on essential services because it refuses to borrow for major capital projects. "We are like a family that decides to buy a house from current income rather than take out a mortgage you end up with low debt, but you have to stop eating, take the kids out of school and turn off the heating and lighting," Mr Rabbitte added. Ireland can afford to borrow for major capital projects because we have the second-lowest debt to GNP ratio in the EU, the Labour leader told more 1,000 delegates.

This year's target budget surplus is €3.7 billion, but instead of spending the money on improving our basic services, Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy has opted to use the money for capital projects.

In contrast during the last election, Labour promised to improve public services and said we should borrow for capital spending, Mr Rabbitte said. This idea was rubbished by the Tánaiste, but now Ms Harney is backing Labour's proposal that we should borrow for major infrastructural projects, he said. The Labour leader said Mr McCreevy was handed a booming economy by Ruairí Quinn back in 1997 and he has since recklessly overheated it and failed to tackle the infrastructure bottlenecks.

"Now when times are not so good, he is cutting public services and capital investment, taking money out of the economy and putting all our futures at risk," Mr Rabbitte said.

Fianna Fáil and the PDs want us to believe that all their cuts are necessary but they want to build up the war chest for the next election, curbing spending now in preparation for another pre-election splurge.

On the North, the Labour leader criticised the "intolerance" of Ian Paisley and the endless semantics and procrastination of republicans.

In his keynote leader's speech tonight, Mr Rabbitte will set out an alternative vision of society to that offered by the present Coalition.