Fianna Fáil campaign launch: The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has rejected suggestions that the electorate will punish Fianna Fáil in the local elections over the increasing price of housing.
At the launch of the Fianna Fáil local election manifesto in which the party promised to accelerate the output of "affordable" housing, Mr Ahern insisted that Government policies had helped to moderate house price increases.
While the manifesto promised support for "affordable" housing through measures in the Planning Act which require developers to provide a percentage of a houses below market prices for young people, Mr Ahern emphasised the Government's efforts to help increase the supply of housing.
"We're building 70,000 houses in this country at the moment, in a population of four million. In Britain, population 50 million, they're building 170,000 houses. We are fast, I think, building up what we set out to do," he said.
"We want to get to a position where people on the corporation lists or council lists around the country can have a better chance of a house; particularly affordable housing and the various schemes and the various grants that the Department of housing administer, they give people a better opportunity."
The manifesto mainly reiterated established Government policies and highlighted the Coalition's record in most spending departments since Fianna Fáil took office with the PDs in 1997.
However, the Minister for the Environment and Fianna Fáil director of elections, Mr Martin Cullen, said the party would publish a separate manifesto in each county as the local election campaign progresses.
Mr Cullen said that information comparing the level of service provided by local councils with other councils State-wide will be published locally "giving people an effective way of assessing the performance of their council".
The document published yesterday said the decentralisation initiative was an example of Fianna Fáil "at its most radical" and said the programme represented "a win-win outcome for all concerned".
It said the party would ensure that all waste collection will be charged by weight or volume from the start of next year "so that people only pay for what they throw away".
On health, the document said that all hospitals will retain 24-hour medical cover. "In these elections, we will assertively refute the campaigns of those who try to stir up local fears in spite of these facts."
It also said that health boards will be asked to carry out an audit of their property holdings to identify unused land which can be sold to pay for new local services.
On education, the document said Fianna Fáil would ensure that that local authorities kept land free for primary and post-primary schools alongside new developments.
While there was no repeat of the general election promise to provide for 2,000 additional gardaí, the manifesto also said the overall crime rate fell by 3 per cent last year.
The manifesto said 17 towns or suburbs had been designated to receive a new Garda closed-circuit television system "subject, of course, to the availability of funds".