Taoiseach Brian Cowen has said Fine Gael and Labour want voters to concentrate on national rather than local issues in the June 5th local elections to distract from their performance on councils since 2004.
Fine Gael and Labour hold the majorities on most of the country’s councils, following a poor performance by Fianna Fáil in 2004 when it lost 80 seats.
“This is a local election. It should be decided on local issues,” Mr Cowen declared, as he launched Fianna Fáil's manifesto for the council elections.
Defending his own record in government, Mr Cowen said the main Opposition parties have attempted to re-write the history of the last few years.
Accepting his own responsibility for mistakes, the Taoiseach said both parties had criticised him for not “spending enough during the boom, rather than spending too little.”
In its manifesto, Fianna Fáil pledges to freeze business rates in councils where it subsequently enjoys a majority, and extra supports for local enterprise.
Fianna Fáil would also cut development levies – used in recent years by councils to fill a major part of their finances – by half, he said.
Questioned about the party’s likely result, Mr Cowen said he was “in the business of running a campaign, not making predictions”.
However, he insisted that Fianna Fáil – despite a series of negative poll findings – will have “a far more successful result than some of the doleful predictions made so far”.
“I spent much of the weekend canvassing and I can tell you that the Fianna Fáil organisation is highly motivated and fighting for every vote in every ward in this country,” he said.
“We will run a confident and positive campaign which will show that the difference between Fianna Fáil’s approach and the approach of our opponents is like day and night."
“The opposition parties are offering only empty criticisms, not concrete plans,” said Mr Cowen, who was joined by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin and Minister of State for the Environment Michael Finneran.
“I want to simply make the point that this is a local election and it should be decided on local issues. This election is about electing the best possible councillors to our county, city, town and borough councils. The leaders of Fine Gael and Labour seem intent on bringing all sorts of other issues into the campaign.
"They want a distraction because since 2004, Fine Gael and Labour have run almost all of the local councils around the country and it is their poor record on these councils that this vote will be on,” he said at the press conference, held in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin.
Acknowledging that Fianna Fáil candidates and canvassers are encountering a difficult time at some doorsteps, Mr Cowen said: “We have almost 800 candidates running for office, and every night there are thousands of workers who canvass with them."
"In the best of times, when all is well, those nights at the doorstep are an easier task than when times are tough. So the fact that those candidates and workers are out on these nights, at this time, is testimony to their courage and commitment. I am proud of them and proud to be the leader of their party.”