Micheál Martin denies claims of engaging in ‘Punch and Judy’ tactics with Enda Kenny

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin has dismissed claims his party is engaging in ‘Punch and Judy’ tactics after launching a mock ad targeting Enda Kenny ahead of the election.

Mr Martin launched a surprise billboard poster yesterday in which the opposition party put its main rival, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, front and centre of its message.

Instead of promoting its own policies, Fianna Fáil targeted Fine Gael’s time overseeing health while in office, as well as the party’s promises to cut taxes for the rich.

Launching his party’s digital advertising campaign, Mr Martin denied that he was engaging in negative-style campaigning, and said the purpose was to expose Fine Gael’s false pledges.

The poster has a large picture of Mr Kenny and Fine Gael’s logo on the image. The only reference to Fianna Fáil is a link to its website and the phrase: “There’s a fairer way”.

It shows Mr Kenny saying he won’t end the scandal of patients on trolleys (a promise he made in the 2007 general election campaign) and that tax cuts for the wealthy come first.

Mr Martin denied the move was negative style campaigning, which is widely used in the US.

He said Fine Gael had promised to end the two-tier system in health, and that US-style taxes would “decimate” services.

Mr Martin said that he would be front and centre of the opposition party’s main campaign, and that health, homelessness, and crime would be some of the main issues raised.

“The purpose of this message is to illustrate the fundamental problem with the Fine Gael approach and the consistency in which they break promises, including the one they made five years ago when they said they would end the two-tier health service.”

Asked if he was engaging in “Punch and Judy” style tactics with the ad, the Cork South Central TD replied: “No, it’s a positive campaign in that it is highlighting a fundamental policy issue. Policy issues are not a negative campaign, that is what politics is all about.”

Asked if voters would get confused with the ad, and whether it was Fianna Fáil’s or Fine Gael’s, he said: “From a distance, I think people will see very clearly ‘I [Enda Kenny] won’t end this scandal with patients on trolleys’ and people will say ‘yes, we agree with you Enda, you won’t’.”

Responding to the Fianna Fáil poster launch, Mr Kenny said Mr Martin should not be engaging in “personal” attacks.

Speaking at the launch of the Government’s latest job plan in Dublin, Mr Kenny said: “Contrary to Fianna Fáil fears, I am not and no one in my party will indulge in personal attacks upon anybody in the Fianna Fáil party, or in any other party.

“I’m going to give you a quotation from a very famous person, who said [he will reduce] ‘A&E waiting lists in our hospitals within two years through a combination of bed capacity, primary care, secondary care and targeted reforms’.

“You can figure out who it was. He happened to be the minister for health [Micheál Martin] back in 2002.”