Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams today said the comments by Labour leader Eamon Gilmore that the election is a three-way contest had a “certain arrogance” to them.
Mr Adams, who is seeking a seat in the Louth constituency, also hit out at what he said was the Labour vision at leadership level which is “a Fine Gael government with Labour in it”.
He said Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil were natural bedfellows and criticised Labour, saying: “It doesn’t make sense to me how any party which is progressive could have a vision which is as narrow and as stunted as that which is about putting Fine Gael into power.”
Speaking in Dundalk this morning, where he hung up a poster of himself in the town centre, Mr Adams said Sinn Féin would not “tie” itself to another party as the Green Party and Labour had done in the past. However, he said Sinn Féin would be open to agreeing a programme of Government. “We want to bring about change and if we can agree a programme for Government, that is fair enough," he said. "If we can’t that is fair enough as well, we will continue to be agents for change."
Mr Adams rejected a claim today by Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin that Sinn Féin policies would wreck the economy.
“This is rich coming from the leader of Fianna Fáil and a man who was part of all the major decisions which have bankrupted the state and imposed a terrible crippling burden on citizens,” he said. “Unlike Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, Labour or other parties Sinn Féin would stand up to the IMF and EU and reject the shoddy deal aimed at saddling our people with massive debt to bail out bankers."
The Sinn Fein president said his party would reverse budget cuts to public services and social welfare. It would also seek root and branch political reform, job creation, an end to two-tier health and education systems, the proper use of Ireland’s natural resources and continued support for the peace process.
While declining to say how many seats Sinn Féin expect to have in the next Dáil, he said the party’s 40 candidates will be fighting to secure a seat in each of the 37 constituencies they are standing in.
Reacting to a poll today which showed a drop in support for Fine Gael and a rise for Sinn Féin, he said: "There is three and a half weeks or so to go and opinion polls come and go, I wouldn’t pay too much heed to them. You know the normal response from politicians is to laud the ones which are approving of what you are doing and dismiss the ones that don’t."