The leader of the Labour Party Ruairi Quinn has said that his party is more than ready and looking forward to the forthcoming general election.
Speaking at the launch of the Labour Party campaign on what he called Day minus one, Mr Quinn repeated that his preferred option for a coalition would be with Fine Gael and the Green Party but he said his party would do the business with anybody provided they would do Labour's business.
Most of Labour's sitting TD's gathered at the RHA in Dublin to hear party leader Ruairi Quinn formally announce the start of their campaign. A bus with "Vote Labour - Ambitious for Ireland" stood outside.
The party is fielding 46 candidates in the election with Ruairi Quinn predicting they would get a seat in every Dublin constituency, two in some, and four seats in Cork. The party estimates this election campaign will cost them in the region of €550,000.
At the launch, Ruairi Quinn said that his enemies had criticised him for prudence in the mid-nineties so people should trust him now when he said this country could now afford the sort of health system that his party was advocating. He also said that the country could afford to borrow prudently for infrastructural projects.
