Ahern challenged to tv debate on abortion

The leader of Fine Gael tonight threw down the gauntlet to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern by challenging him to a televised debate on the forthcoming national referendum on abortion.

In what has been billed by political commentators as the most important speech of his career, Fine Gael’s Michael Noonan also said Mr Ahern’s Fianna Fail party had ‘‘squandered our boom and failed the people’’.