Fine Gael and Labour will be the only electable coalition combination to publish an agreed platform before the next election, and therefore the only one that could be trusted, their party leaders said yesterday in Mullingar.
Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte pledged to publish a series of joint policies on crime, health and the economy in the coming months, saying they had made significant progress towards agreement in all these areas.
"Despite serving two terms in office, Fianna Fáil and the PDs have never offered the Irish people any agreed pre-election joint programme proposals and they have no plans to do so now," Mr Kenny said.
Fine Gael and Labour were, therefore, "breaking new ground" through engaging in detailed discussions to agree a joint programme for meaningful change.
Both Mr Kenny and Mr Rabbitte sought to suggest that voting for Fianna Fáil might lead to that party being in government again with the support of Sinn Féin.
A Fianna Fáil spokeswoman pointed out later that the Taoiseach had on a number of occasions ruled out the possibility of any deal with Sinn Féin.
Mr Kenny said: "Even Fianna Fáil now accepts that they cannot make their way back to government, and the Fianna Fáil/PD coalition cannot and will not be elected."
Fianna Fáil had been "rejected by all potential new coalition partners with the exception of Sinn Féin. So a vote for FF is now a vote for uncertainty and instability."
Mr Rabbitte suggested that "the only option available to Mr Ahern now is that, from either inside government or outside government, he must rely on Sinn Féin".
He said Dermot Ahern had raised this prospect when he remarked that Sinn Féin might be in government earlier than he had thought. It was "blindingly obvious that Mr Ahern has run out of partners".
Mr Kenny said the parties would shortly produce agreed documents on crime, health and the economy.
Asked about Fianna Fáil's claim - sent by text message to reporters during the FG/Labour press conference - that they had only produced a mental health policy document yesterday because they could not agree on other areas, he said: "Fianna Fáil will get their answer when we publish the other documents over the coming months. We will not be taunted into producing them because they text you."
Mr Rabbitte said it was true that there were differences between the parties "and that is understandable because they are different parties".
"But I don't think the health services is a very good example. There seems to me to be a larger measure of agreement and convergence between the policies of the two parties on the health services than on any other issue I can think of."
He said party research showed that crime, health and the economy came up again and again as among the top issues of concern to the public. It was for this reason that the parties had decided to agree policies in these areas.
Future documents on health policy would cover tackling the problems in A&E departments; reform of finance, access and capacity in healthcare; development of primary care; organisational change and accountability in the health services; and public health and personal responsibility.
Accusing the Government of having become "smug, arrogant and out of touch", Mr Kenny said it displayed "tiredness, fatigue and exhaustion . . . This will probably be the most exciting general election for many years and we intend to win because we are getting massive support from the people."
The leaders set out five "guiding principles" which would influence their approach to government. Their parties would:
*Be in touch by bringing government back to the concerns of families and communities;
*Deliver value for money;
*Be accountable, accepting responsibility for improving public services;
*Not allow key concerns be lost between government departments;
*Be decisive, positive and pro-active, not allowing problems fester in the hope they would disappear.