Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has said the Progressive Democrats were "an unashamedly selfish party" dedicated to the proposition that inequality is necessary in order to make the economy work.
Mr Rabbitte was answering questions from readers on ireland.comtoday, in the second online question-and-answer session with the political party leaders in advance of the general election on May 24 th.
He was accused by one questioner of "hypocrisy" in offering tax cuts to the electorate after "abusing the PDs for two decades" over its tax cutting proposals.
The Labour Party leader said it was "not true" that Labour ever opposed genuine tax reform.
"Labour has always supported a re-balancing of the tax code to the advantage of people on middle and low incomes," he said.
"The PDs are an unashamedly selfish party advocating the cause of some of the most wealthy people in our society and dedicated to the proposition that inequality is necessary to make our economy work. I take the opposite view."
In response to another question, Mr Rabbitte said it was "a bit rich" of Minister for Finance Brian Cowen to complain that Fine Gael and Labour had not agreed a programme for government in its entirety before election day "given that he is a member of this and the previous governments where the two parties only sat down after election day to agree the programme for government".
The Labour Party leader said that "uniquely" in advance of the general election Labour and Fine Gael had settled their platform on the "big issues" such as health, crime, policing and economic parameters.
As part of ireland.com'scoverage of the general election each of the party leaders has been invited to participate in an online question and answer session during which they will answer political questions submitted by readers.
Green Party leader Trevor Sargent took part on May 11 th.
The full question-and-answer sessions are available at ireland.com's free election site here: http://www.ireland.com/focus/election2007/