Fianna Fáil/PDs ‘can not claim credit for fiscal success’

IRELAND’S economic achievements over the past decade can not be attributed to the neo-liberalist approach taken by the Fianna Fáil/PD coalition, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said last night.

Speaking ahead of his party’s major policy paper on the economy on Monday, Mr Rabbitte last night attacked what he described as the PD-dominated economic philosophy of the coalition, as articulated by Justice Minister Michael McDowell.

He rejected the assertion made by Mr McDowell that without the liberal market economics pursued by the coalition since 1997, “there would have been no Celtic Tiger, no turnaround, and no boom”.