Greens to launch assault on Government

THE Green Party will launch an assault on the Government when the Dáil resumes next week by highlighting its "incompetence" in a range of areas.

The Government's record on healthcare, education, crime prevention and more will come under the spotlight in the Greens' first Dáil motion of the new term.

Party leader Trevor Sargent will point to the continuing overcrowding of A&E departments, high class sizes, the absence of "real choice" for parents needing childcare, and similar problems.

Speaking at a press conference to mark a meeting of its parliamentary party in Dublin yesterday, Mr Sargent said it was time to "oust the inept Fianna Fáil/PD coalition" from power.

The Government had adopted "George Bush neo-conservative economics", he said, where the increase in economic growth figures was paraded as a totem of its success.

"What they fail to realise is that people measure their lives by broader measures - measures which reflect the quality of their lives in their communities," Mr Sargent added.

Citing stealth taxes and consumer price increases, he said: "This coalition has moved national debt to a personal debt."

Mr Sargent said the party would roll out a series of policies in the coming months, including documents on energy and childcare.

Green TD John Gormley, meanwhile, said recent polls showing increased support for the Greens had buoyed the party. "Quite clearly, we will be players in the formation of an alternative government," he said.

Yet the Greens have ruled out forming a pre-election pact with Fine Gael and Labour.

Indeed, Green education spokesman Paul Gogarty went as far as accusing his Fine Gael counterpart, Olwyn Enright, of "copying" one of the party's policies.

Fine Gael, "as the potential government in waiting", had come up with "SFA" in terms of education policy, he said. Labour had been "similarly quite silent". The Greens, by contrast, had a "record second to none" on education, he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Sargent appeared to rule out a target of doubling the party's six seats, saying it would be "very ambitious".

"It would be great to get into double figures," he said, but seven seats would be "the magic number in Dáil terms" because this is the number required for a party to get more speaking rights.

But the meeting was later overshadowed when the party learned of the death of its general secretary Dermot Hamilton.