MR AHERN said Fianna Fail had consulted widely and had developed strong, committed policies under his leadership over the past two years. It was a new kind of response to the people. A set of achievements waiting to happen.
Fianna Fail was the only truly national party; the only party with TDs in every constituency. The only party with membership spanning the whole spectrum of Irish society. The only party setting out to address all the needs of the nation.
He went on:
The Rainbow Coalition is, in sharp contrast, a Government of the three-card trick. What you see is not what you get, and what you get, is not what you want to see. The Taoiseach is locked away by this minders, in case he creates a daily PR disaster. Fine Gael have no policies of their own now, because they stand for nothing but office. The ghosts of former Fine Gael members must weep, when they see a once proud party, now the lap-dog of Labour and Democratic Left.
They simply do not understand what a government should do. They did not understand that it was so wrong to push the victims of hepatitis C to the limit: They did not understand the importance of the BSE crisis, which has rocked our farming community. They broke their promise to the nation that Government expenditure would be kept under control. They spent, spent, spent with no care for tomorrow.
The deep anger they caused in" educational circles shows that they did not really understand the deeply-held values of our schools and universities. They showed, time and time again, contempt for our semi-state management and workers. But it's much worse than that.
The grim fact is that more Ministers had to resign in disgrace from this Government, than from any other Government, in the history of the state.
That's not counting the ones who should have resigned if they had the decency to go when they disgracefully failed in their duty. The two involved in the scandal of hepatitis C, should have gone. The one who was the expert on cosy cartels, should have gone there and then. The one who is Minister for Justice, in name only, should have gone, and should still go. It's not about principles, in this Government, it's about power. Power at any price. Power without purpose. Power without principle. Power without respect for the people.
That is what gave Dick Spring the idea, that his personal preference, was far more important, than the votes of the Irish people.
This is Labour Party arrogance at its worst. We reject it. And on election day, the people will reject that Labour Party and its arrogance.
Fianna Fail will enforce a new set of standards for all its members. We will not tolerate any deviation from the bench marks of honour at local level, or in Leinster House, be it in the past, present or future. No one - no one - is welcome in this party if they betray the public trust. I say this and mean this with every fibre of my being.
We will write new ethics standards and independent enforcement, into the law of this land. I know the Rainbow will oppose that too - just as the three Rainbow parties between them have actively resisted and ridiculed every great national venture. They were against Europe, against National Agreements, against the work of the peace process, again the semi-states, against partnership boards, and of course they are united in being against the public service.
But let me tell them tonight: Fianna Fail is proud of our public service workers, and their honourable service to their country. We will always stand by our gardai, Army, our prison officers, our teachers, the nurses, and all our civil service and public sector employees.
We will always work with them, in a spirit of social partnership and consensus. They have been a powerful engine of our national progress. I say to the Rainbow Government tonight: Go and cut your Government's waste, but do not cut our Government workers.
So let me tell you exactly what a new Fianna Fail government will do. We will cut crime, cut unemployment, cut spending, cut taxes, cut out pollution, pursue peace on this island, and empower people at local level, to do their best for Ireland, and for themselves. That is a mighty task we have set ourselves, but it must be done - and let me begin, with our plan for crime.
One of the most basic of all civil rights, is the freedom to be safe on your own streets, and in your own home. I will make the fight against crime my first priority in a new Fianna Fail government.
Let me put the Fianna Fail message in five simple words, to the drug barons and to the criminal gangs: We will not accept this.
You will no longer be allowed, hold sway over our lives. You will not live in luxury with impunity. Because we have a plan for you. Our plan is to arrest you, prosecute you, and put you in jail. Fianna Fail's plan for zero tolerance will put the gardai and the community in the driving seat, with a major crackdown on all crime, and particularly on drug crime. This Government has given up the fight. And too many of the few who are caught, are released, through the revolving door system, having served only a fraction of their sentence.
Fianna Fail's anti-drug strategy is a tough, totally co-ordinated programme to tackle each of the key players - the addict, the pusher, the drug baron. It will punish the wrongdoers, give proper treatment to addicts, and build up personal skills and community power.
We have already pledged resources to put in place a local and national co-ordinator, a fast-track court system, drug-free prison places, detoxification beds, special parole arrangements, personal training for employment. Those are positive, practical provisions.
The Ireland we're building for the 21st century will not be a great nation if in the middle of a booming economy, we do not care for the long-term unemployed - or if we benefit an elite group, and leave the rest behind.
Let me state it very bluntly: Fianna Fail will not be party to a two-tier society.
Our booming economy must be used to fuel human potential, to bring people back into the employment mainstream. Fianna Fail will not accept anything less. We must invest people and money in pre-school, in primary and in secondary schools, to correct educational disadvantage. Fianna Fail will not accept anything less.
We must give our young people places to go to, apart from the streets. So we've got to have full-time recreational officers, and begin a major drive to involve the young in sport, culture, music and outdoor activities. Fianna Fail will not accept anything less.
Poverty, unemployment, educational and social disadvantage are not problems to be eradicated by fine words or good intentions. What's required is determined hard work: going right to the" causes of deprivation. We have detailed plans to do that, to make the unequal, at long last, equal. That is what Fianna Fail is pledged to. And that is what Fianna Fail will do.
The incoming Fianna Fail government will pursue a vigorous strategy of educational excellence. We will introduce a detailed curriculum in information technology, so every primary and secondary student will have the right and the means to gain computer literacy.
WE WILL establish a national psychological service, to detect and deal with learning difficulties in the early primary grades.
We will take decisive steps to meet the serious crisis of the 20,000 second level students who drop out each year.
We will give PLC students the same grants as other students - because we believe that how far they can go, should be determined by the quality of their minds, not by the amount of their money.
On the economy, we are proud of the tough and prudent decisions taken by Fianna Fail ministers of finance between 1987 and the end of 1994. The Celtic Tiger was nourished on Fianna Fail policies - low inflation, low interest rates, increased employment and greatly increased exports. Fianna Fail forged consensus out of an economic wasteland. With farmers, employers and trade unions, we negotiated three back-to-back national agreements that brought stability and progress to Ireland's economy. In the new Fianna Fail government, we will continue and renew this effort, well beyond Partnership 2000.
The present Government has lived off the past achievements of Fianna Fail - but has not built on them. They have had the resources, for three straight budgets, to undertake fundamental reform of the tax system. Instead, this coalition Government, this alliance of extremes, has taken spending to the extreme. They promised to hold spending increases to 2 per cent a year; instead they have increased it in excess of 20 per cent. They have taken an extra £600 million out of pockets of Irish taxpayers, and only reduced income tax by 1 per cent. They have forgotten that it's not the politicians' money they're spending; it's the people's money - it's your money. A new Fianna Fail government will re-institute real tax cutting as a fundamental and central part of our economic policy. And we will pay for it successfully, as we did before.
We paid for it by getting the government budget back into the black - and we paid for it with the economic growth our tax cuts created.
We will eliminate borrowing to finance day-to-day public spending. Fianna Fail's Plan for Business includes: a PAYE allowance for company directors. A reduction in personal income tax for those who create and sustain employment. A tax allowance for long-term unemployed. A low 25 per cent tax rate for small start-up companies, and many other positive steps.
These are just some of the concrete proposals Fianna Fail will implement, to promote new Irish business and assist small business expand outwards.
Love of country, means love of countryside. Clean water, clean rivers, protecting farmland from pollution, solving the problem of traffic congestion in our towns and cities - all these issues are covered in our new environment policy. We believe that local people by right, should have the major say in what kind of industry sets up in their area. We believe in making the polluter pay dearly for, despoiling our air, our land, and our water. Under Fianna Fail, every government decision with an impact on the environment, will be eco-audited. Our aim is to. make Ireland the EU member state, with the highest environmental standards.
The first step the next Fianna Fail government will take will be to restore the live trade.
The BSE crisis was a source of great public concern at home and abroad, because it raised unfounded questions about the quality of Irish food. Fianna Fail will establish an Independent Food Authority, which will certify the quality of Irish food, from the farm to the supermarket shelf. For Ireland, farming families are an economic heartland. For Fianna Fail they are our heritage - from coast to coast, the ground of our nation's being. The cares of family farmers were, and are, and always will be our concern.
We have no less concern for our [fi5g families. Right now our fishing communities are watching their livelihood being vacuumed from our seas. The EU is aware of gross under-recording - and our Government knows that full well. The cost to Ireland is estimated at £2 billion. This must stop. It must stop now. We will help our fishing industry rebuild to face the challenge of competition. We will insist on a major EU commitment to combat unfair competition. We will insist on EU funding for proper control and surveillance in the Irish Box.
Fianna Fail will liberate local government, from the stranglehold of central government. We want the system to stop wasting your time. Social welfare entitlements, housing, health services, educational services, nurturing the environment, and promoting the heritage and economic prosperity of the local area, are in the end local issues. They are human issues, and only at the local level can we hear the voices, and see the people behind all the programmes and titles and complicated forms.
Local democracy means that you are dealing directly with one of your neighbours - who is a lot more likely, than a faceless office in Dublin, to put people before politics
Today the family is under pressure - and family is paramount to Fianna Fail. We will make special tax provision for men and women who opt to work in the home on our return to government, be cause this is so important to Fianna Fail.
Much of rural Ireland, and many urban neighbourhoods, are at a crossroads - and we must make sure that they are kept alive. Fianna Fail will insist on equality and equity of treatment for all, when it comes to water, TV reception, and every aspect of the build environment.
Your next Fianna Fail government will not impose water charges. A Fianna Fail government will have a new programme of Urban Renewal targeted at more parts of our cities and towns.
We will provide incentives to locate high-tech industries and services in the countryside, as well as the city.
Fianna Fail will make Ireland the tele-working capital of Europe.
Fianna Fail will have a uniform charging for telephone, electricity, and other services. On an island this size, it should not cost more to live, invest and create jobs in rural Ireland. We will fight for the way of life and the standard of life of small villages and individual neighbourhoods - and we will never forget that a decent income is a family value too.
We are determined to constantly update the public health system, and we are committed unlike the present Government, to make sense of the health insurance systems. We will produce a White Paper to look at the options, and we will order a revision of health insurance regulations because we need better out-patient cover, and we need cover for alternative, and complementary treatments.
The waiting lists must be cut and specific measures relating to women's health must be enacted.
Tuigeann Fianna Fail go maith go bhfuil rol lanach ag muintir na Gaeltachta san obair mhor seo ar son na Gaeilge. I gCondae Mhaigh Eo, sa Ghailleamh, i dTir Chonaill, i gCondae na Mi, gCondae Ciarrai agus Corcaigh agus i bPort Lairge, agus ar fud na tire, thuaidh agus theas, ta muintir dilis na Gaeltachta agus na Gaeilge. Timse ag ra anseo anocht, bhi sibhse i gconai dilis don Ghaeilge, agus beidh Fianna Fail i gconai dilis daoibhse.
Cuirimid failte mhor roimh Theilifis na Gaeilge agus ta fhios agam go n-eireoidh thar barr leis. Le cinntiu go mbeidh na cearta ceanna ag pobal na Gaeilge agus ata ag an bpobal mor, cuirfidh Fianna Fail Oifig nua ar bun - Oifig Ombudsman na Gaeilge.
THE ceasefire of autumn 1994 opened a window of peace. Recent shootings of civilians and security personnel, the placing of bombs and booby traps, the continuation of barbaric punishment beatings, and the burning of places of worship, are all utterly wrong - and they are a grim reminder to us all, of the price of political failure.
Fianna Fail is the mainstream Republican party. We recognise that Ireland can only be united in peace and agreement. We reject coercion from any quarter. We stand ready to assist and support any genuine peace commitment on the part of Sinn Fein, but they must make the fundamental choice for an exclusively peaceful strategy. There must be no equivocation about it.
We stand by the Downing Street Declaration, the Framework Document and the Report of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. The ledger of death and destruction in the North is full enough, God knows. Let it be closed now for good and all.
Standing here tonight, I pledge as Leader of Fianna Fail, that I will strive with all the energy at my disposal, and all the committed team-work of the party, to have a total ceasefire reinstated, and to proceed quickly to inclusive all-party talks.
The economic boom created by the Irish people when Fianna Fail was in power made Ireland the envy of many. It has put unlimited possibilities into our hands.
For the first time in history, the dream is ours to shape.
Our party has been in the vanguard of every great step forward by our nation, in this century. Every great step forward.
Fianna Fail's founders were in the vanguard of the fight for freedom.
Fianna Fail had the vision - in the sixties - to take the great steps toward industrial development and economic self-support.
Fianna Fail had the courage and the foresight to lead us into Europe.
Fianna Fail had the discipline and the direction to create industrial peace out of chaos, and create unparalleled prosperity, out of recession and debt.
I believe it is our responsibility, as Fianna Fail, to create the Ireland of the 21st century, an Ireland of energy and power, of equality and opportunity. The Ireland of the 21st century, must be a place of innovative new ideas, and keen competition - but it must also be a gentle, warm and welcoming home for all of us.