THE Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, has rebuked the party's outgoing Wexford deputy. Mr John Browne, over his dissenting views on entering government with the Progressive Democrats.
Speaking at a press conference in Dublin yesterday, Mr Ahern said Fianna Fail would be in government with the PDs. Asked whether he was "rapping the knuckles" of Mr Browne, he said he was. Some candidates were "suffering from the jitters, nerves and sunstroke", he added.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, claimed that Mr Browne had "blown out of the water the consensus agreed between Mr Ahern and the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, last weekend. "John Browne knows a Fianna Fail/PD alliance is an explosive and unstable cocktail," he said.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, claimed there were ominous signs that if the Fianna Fail/ PD alliance was elected it would soon fall into the pattern of accusation and recrimination which dominated their last coalition.
Following publication of an interview with him in the Wexford People, Mr Browne told RTE's Morning Ireland yesterday that the Progressive Democrats were very difficult to deal with when Fianna Fail joined them in government before.
He had earlier told the newspaper that "unless they changed their attitude, it would be very difficult to accept government with them". His colleague, outgoing TD Mr Hugh Byrne, is also quoted in the paper as saying that Ms Harney's proposals for single mothers would be totally wrong.
Mr Byrne is reported as agreeing that Fianna Fail had suffered as a result of Ms Harney's position.
Mr Browne said he would "not be over the moon" about some of the Progressive Democrats' policy statements of last week. The Progressive Democrats' attitude to cuts in the public service was "totally unacceptable" to him, he said. He was also unhappy with Ms Harney's statement on single mothers.
"Their attitude in government (on) the last occasion, in relation to the late Brian Lenihan, Jimmy McDaid and Charlie Haughey, was totally unacceptable as far as I am concerned and this is a personal view of mine," Mr Browne added.
Saying he felt "very strongly" about the issue, he conceded that, as a democrat, he would accept the decision of the Fianna Fail parliamentary party.
Mr Browne voted against going into coalition with the PDs in 1989. If Mr Ahern decided to lead Fianna Fail into government with them on this occasion - "or indeed any other party" - it would be a long term arrangement.