FF to focus on sound economy - Brennan

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Seamus Brennan has said Fianna Fáil would not be matching 'the unprecedented scale of promises' made by the opposition ahead of the upcoming general election.

Seamus Brennan:

Speaking at the launch of details of this weekends' Fianna Fáil Ard Fheis in Dublin today, Mr Brennan said promises made by Fine Gael and the Labour Party ahead of the next general election would 'bankrupt the country' and to match them would be 'reckless.'

He said the party had monitored Fine Gael and Labour for two years and that 'their committments were enormous.'

Instead of matching these promises, he said the basis for Fianna Fáil's election campaign would be to remind the public that the economy was central to the country's success and that it would have to be protected as 'without that everything else would come to nought.'

The Minister said existing policy areas such as Transport 21, the National Development Plan, social inclusion, agriculture and children's health would form the foundation of the party's election campaign.

He added that the Taoiseach and the Minister for Finance would also lay out costed policy positions 'in plenty of time' for the election.

Minister Brennan said the party was taking 'nothing for granted' ahead of the election as 'nobody has the right to be in power without a clear and fresh mandate from the Irish people.'

However, he said that Fianna Fáil would be taking its case 'to every single voter throughout the land' and that it would point out that Ireland has had 'ten years of solid economic progress and economic development.'

He said Ireland was now a country 'defined by opportunities not by limitations' and that delegates at the Ard Fheis would be 'talking about those opportunities and how they can be used to take the country to its next stage of development.'

While not giving anything away on the actual date of the election, Mr Brennan said the party would begin its poster campaign during the period between the end of the Ard Fheis and Easter.