Dermot Ahern, Launched Fianna Fáil plan
Fianna Fáil's Dermot Ahern has criticised plans by the Labour Party to divert money from the national pension fund for five years. Launching his party's pension plan, Mr Ahern claimed that the Labour proposal would result in a "massive pension shortfall" in years to come.
Labour's finance spokesman, Derek McDowell, has said his party would achieve Fianna Fáil's old age pension target in two years' time, and would also link pension increases to wages growth.
Fianna Fáil's pledges on pensions include raising the old age pension to €200 a week by 2007, and the introduction of a Homemaker's Pension. Dermot Ahern said that Fianna Fáil would also remove the requirement whereby a person reaching 65 must first retire for a period before being able to work and retain a portion of their pension.
Derek McDowell said that the accusation that his party was raiding the pension fund was not true, as Labour would increase the size of the fund, not raid it. He said that Labour would not reduce contributions to the fund.
Fianna Fáil earlier called on Fine Gael to clarify whether or not its policies would lead to 30,000 redundancies in the public sector. Minister of State Martin Cullen claimed that Michael Noonan indicated in a newspaper article that Fine Gael intended to make at least 30,000 public servants redundant.
Fine Gael described the claim as rubbish, saying that all public servants had security of tenure. The party in turn accused Fianna Fáil of failure to deliver on the health services.
Fine Gael said that Michael Noonan would today be visiting Mullingar Hospital, where a new wing has remained without beds or nurses for some time - an indication, Fine Gael said, of the Government's failure to deliver on health policy.
Fianna Fáil leader Bertie Ahern is campaigning in Mayo today; Labour leader Ruairí Quinn is visiting Dun Laoghaire and Dublin South; and the Progressive Democrats' leader Mary Harney is in Cork.
