Fianna Fáil pensions promise gives Fine Gael electoral ammunition

WHEN things go wrong they go very wrong.

Take the Fianna Fáil pensions policy announced this week. From months out it was clear the senior Government partner would follow the strategy it had followed in 2002 and tell the electorate they had never had it so good.

In the pensions area, it could hardly have been criticised. It promised to raise the basic State pension to €200 within the five-year term of Government. It achieved that aim in last December’s budget.