Ahern fires salvo ahead of TV debate

The policies of the alternative Government parties are a recipe for disaster and will squander Ireland's prosperity, the Taoiseach warned today.

In his strongest attack on his election rivals, Bertie Ahern said voters must not sleepwalk into electing "inexperienced" parties like Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens.

The Taoiseach was speaking ahead of tonight's crunch TV debate with Opposition leader Enda Kenny.

He said: "It's just another day, another debate for me. When you spend so many hours in the Dáil, week in, week out…

"This country is fabulously strong at the moment. I want to build on that.

"It is a difficulty being Taoiseach. It is a difficult job being ministers."

"When I look at the Opposition, I see recipes for disaster all over the place. I just hope that we don't sleepwalk into making a very fundamental mistake like giving an inexperienced Opposition an opportunity to reverse this country."

He said he had enjoyed the election campaign, except for recent heavy rain.

"Next week, the votes will decide whether we are going to go forward as a country or are we going to go backwards," he said.

"The combination of parties that will form the alternative Government will bring this country backwards."

Mr Ahern today launched an arts document in a dance studio in Foley Street, in the heart of his Dublin Central constituency. His son-in-law Nicky Byrne and singer Ronan Keating also attended along with actor Alan Stanford and pianist John O'Connor.

He also denied that high-profile visits to Stormont, Westminster and the Battle of the Boyne site had interrupted the momentum of the Fianna Fáil campaign.

He said he had been in every constituency at least three times since September.

"The days have been longer. Instead of getting my usual six or seven hours of sleep, the nights have been a bit shorter.

"I haven't had any spare time. I'm used to that. The nurses dispute, I lost another night's sleep keeping in touch with my colleagues on that.

"We finished up at 4.20am the other night, and back on the road at 7am.

"I think Enda Kenny said the other day that it would be easier being Taoiseach than leader of the Opposition. He needs to grow up."

He said he never spends much time reading polls, but that 35% national support is too low.