GOVERNMENT and Opposition parties are completing their preparations for the calling of a general election next Thursday. The Coalition leaders are widely expected to make a formal decision to dissolve the 27th Dail at their pre-Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
The Dail's Order of Business for next week will facilitate the Government's intention to have all urgent matters - such as the passage of the Electoral Bill and a motion approving the dispatch of an Irish contingent to participate in the UN-authorised stabilisation force (Sfor) in Bosnia-Herzegovina - taken by midnight on Wednesday.
The Coalition plans to open a choreographed three-party campaign immediately after the dissolution. The Government's election manifesto is expected to be announced at a joint press conference by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, and the Minister for Social Welfare Mr De Rossa. This will be one of a number of shared platforms designed to present - a cohesive picture of the Coalition and put pressure on the Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrats alternative.
It is intended to introduce separate Fine Gael, Labour and Democratic Left programmes the following week.
Fianna Fail has made plans for its leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, to publish the party's election manifesto next Friday.
Meanwhile the Taoiseach is considering doing RTE interviews tomorrow to address the conflict in the evidence he gave to the beef tribunal and the Dunnes payments tribunal about his role in party fund-raising. He is being advised to get this matter out of the way before an election is called.
The Progressive Democrats moved yesterday to stake out their ground on tax reform in advance of the election campaign, proposing the reduction of the two PAYE tax bands to 40 and 20 per cent, respectively, and the elimination of employee PRSI, all within the lifetime of the next Dail. They also propose reductions in corporate and capital taxes and the introduction of domestic water charges.
Two Government Ministers, Mr De Rossa and Mr Richard Bruton, promptly dismissed these proposals. Mr De Rossa said that they would involve "slashing a wide range of essential social services" while Mr Bruton maintained that they would result in the Partnership 2000 agreement "being torn up
The PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, maintained that the party's tax proposals were not negotiable. "The Progressive Democrats will not compromise in government when it comes to our tax-cutting commitments," she said.
The party's finance spokesman, Mr Michael McDowell, described the tax proposals as a "solemn pledge to voters" and said that they could be achieved within the parameters of Partnership 2000.
Meanwhile Fianna Fail's finance spokesman, Mr Charlie McCreevy, has pledged that his party will introduce legislation to bring about a minimum hourly wage. There was no social or economic justification to delay the introduction of such legislation, he said, now that the new British government had indicated that it would sign up to the EU Social Chapter.
"We do not intend Ireland to be the cheap labour market of Europe," he said in a speech to the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. "If benefits are to flow from economic growth, we must first look after those - usually non-unionised - whose participation in the labour market is disturbingly patchy."