THE DETERIORATING state of the economy has prompted a sharp attack on Brian Cowen's leadership from the Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny, who maintained that the hallmark of the new Taoiseach's period in office to date has been failure.
Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea responded by accusing Mr Kenny of "tired, vacuous, redundant arguments", and of having a threadbare economic policy that involved little more than vulgar abuse.
There was further bad news in the latest figures published yesterday by the Central Statistics Office showing the slowdown in consumer spending continuing in June, with the volume of retail sales down 5.2 per cent compared with the same month last year. This was the biggest annual decline in retail sales since 1987.
Mr Kenny, in an address to the Humbert summer school in Ballina, Co Mayo, said the biggest challenge facing Mr Cowen was his own incapacity to grasp a challenge.
"That patent incapacity is what has characterised his first 100 days in office, giving them the inescapable hallmark of failure.
"Failure to deliver on Lisbon. Failure to bring the national pay talks to a conclusion. Failure to do anything other than talk about reform," said Mr Kenny.
He added that this incapacity would be a problem at any time but it bad times it was a lethal deficit.
"The external challenges facing him are huge, including, as they do, the challenge of solving Ireland's EU problem, the challenge of a by- election and, of pivotal importance, the challenge of creating an effective stimulus for the economy."
Mr Kenny said the facts facing the country were grim. Public finances were suffering the worst deterioration in the history of the State while the growth in unemployment was at its highest since the 1970s.
"It's not just that people are increasingly coming under personal financial pressure. They're also baffled that none of this was anticipated by the people supposedly in charge, and astonished that the Government isn't doing something about it.
"The problem is that this Government has been so long in power, it has a diminished capacity to envisage anything different and has run out of imagination, innovation and creativity.
"Like a rabbit caught in headlights, it does nothing, sees no possibilities."
Mr Kenny said Fine Gael would deal with the current crisis by further cuts in stamp duty for ordinary families, funded by ending stamp duty loopholes for the wealthy.
He also called for consolidation of the various affordable housing schemes into a new improved product combined with pressure on the banks to write off bad loans and, if necessary, raise more capital to maintain the availability of credit.
Pointing out that almost half of all workers in the building industry were in danger of losing their jobs by the end of next year, he called on the Government to expand Fás programmes to improve the skills of those laid off.
Mr O'Dea responded by accusing Mr Kenny of inanity interspersed with "tasteless, vulgar, personal insults" delivered by "the same tired puppet with the same people in the background jerking his strings".
Comparing Mr Kenny to the wizard in the Harry Potter books, he said: "Nobody in this country believes for a single moment that the 'Dumbeldore' of Castlebar is capable of waving a magic wand that will instantly transform the Irish economy while the rest of the western world remains gripped by the sharpest economic downturn in recent history," said Mr O'Dea.