Ahern focused on giving the contract a good kicking

AS the party enters the last week of the campaign buoyed by the poll results, it finally has a focused strategy: to pick as many holes as possible in Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny’s Contract for a Better Ireland.

Mon, 21 May, 2007 - 01:00

Paul O’Brien, Political Reporter

Mr Ahern started the process in the leaders’ debate, arguing that several of the initiatives in the contract were either not costed or coherent.

Yesterday, as he addressed about 200 members at a rally at the party’s election headquarters in Dublin, he stuck to that message.

First, however, he accentuated the positive. Fianna Fáil, he said, had a record in government which was “second to none”.

He then spoke about Fianna Fáil’s manifesto and the future progress the party would make if returned to power.

But then came the central theme of his speech, and the core of Fianna Fáil’s strategy for the last few days of the campaign: giving Enda Kenny and his contract a kicking.

Mr Ahern criticised the Fine Gael leader’s proposals on tax, health and justice.!

The problems weren’t only with the proposals in the Fine Gael contract, but what was omitted too, Mr Ahern said.

“No mention of pensions, of schools, of transport. Not a word about farmers, or the peace process. And nowhere do we even see the word ‘jobs’.

“My friends, let me put it to you simply and let me put it to you straight: Enda Kenny’s contract with Ireland is a fraud. It isn’t worth the billboard it is written on.

“This isn’t a contract for Ireland, it’s a fraud for Ireland — and we’ve four days to expose it.”

He signed off by urging the 200 or so party members present — which included a handful of ministers, TDs and candidates, and numerous advisors — to push for votes until the last possible moment.

That pitch met with wild applause. Balloons and confetti descended, and then came the music: Jackie Wilson’s “[Your Love Keeps Lifting Me] Higher and Higher.” But, for all the poll results, Fianna Fáil still has some distance to go if it is to score sufficiently high on Thursday to keep its grip on power.