Bertie Ahern's time in government is up, he was told today by Opposition leader Enda Kenny. As the opening shots were fired in what promised to be a bruising general election campaign, the Fine Gael leader said that his party, along with the Labour Party, would offer voters the chance to elect a decisive government on May 24th.
Mr Kenny claimed the current Fianna Fail and Progresses Democrats coalition had a record of failure.
"They (The electorate) know they (the government) won't deliver health services that work," Mr Kenny said.
"They know they won't deliver safe streets. They know they won't spend our money wisely. Their time is up.
"That is why I believe it is time for a decisive government that will take action to provide the public services that the people deserve.
"That is why I offer my Contract for a Better Ireland. That is why I am prepared to accept responsibility and put my own neck on the line to show how serious I am.
"Therefore I believe the people of this country have an opportunity now to take their destiny in their own hands, to vote for change, to vote for the alliance of change and vote for Fine Gael and Labour."
Mr Kenny insisted he was not taken by surprise by the Taoiseach election announcement, saying he had been on standby.
The Fine Gael leader said; "This election is about the government's failure to provide public services across the whole range of sectors.
"The people are now going to have their say and I know what they are going to do."
Speaking on RTE's This Week this afternoon Fine Gael had been "waiting for this for quite a long time. We have been preparing for it assiduously and I think it is going to be a really exciting and vigorous campaign and I think that we are going to win."
He said that Fine Gael had much better prospects than in the last election. "Four and a half years ago people had written the obituary of the Fine Gael party, written off completely and staring into oblivion. Now we have rebuilt that engine and we have tested it in the local elections and the European elections and a stunning victory in the Meath by-election with massive results. They are now past victories."
"We have honed that engine sinc,e and we have travelled incessantly to the 43 constituencies in this country and the trend in the way people are thinking and talking is that they want rid of this government and their time is up. They have had 10 years and they have failed in their duty and they are going to be thrown out."