Labour will fill the vacuum where the vision should be
Issued : Tuesday 15 May, 2007
Statement by Pat Rabbitte TD
Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources
Across the country there is a mood for change. The Irish people are looking for a new Government - a Government that will address their issues: a Government that will maintain a successful economy, but also build a Fair Society.
After ten years of Fianna Fáil/PD government, there is a vacuum where the vision should be. There is no radicalism. There is no appreciation of the gap that exists between where we are, and where we could be. There is no drive, no confidence in the capacity of Government to move our country in a new and fresh direction. There is just more of the same.
Today's IMS poll shows that the era of Fianna Fáil and the PDs is coming to an end. The question, as President Bartlett would say, is 'What's Next'. Labour is determined to answer that question.
We all know that there has been progress in the last ten years. We do have more income. But we have not made the best use of our prosperity.
Too many people are on a gilded treadmill, constantly juggling an endless stream of longer hours, rising bills, and less time for family. Our country is increasingly ill at ease with itself, and lacking a sense of purpose for its future. Too many have been left behind in the wake of a rising tide that did not lift all boats.
Government is about choices, and too many of the choices made have been the wrong choices.
Now is the time for a new vision, and new values.
A vision of our country, as one where hard working families enjoy a good quality of life and can build a better future for their children.
A vision of a country that does not turn a blind eye, but sees and recognises the needs of the elderly and those who care.
A vision of a country where there are people values, as well as property values. Where service to others is elevated and honoured, where there is a sense of purpose and optimism, and where there is more to life that the devil take the hindmost.
A vision of a country, where the quality of our future is not strained, but shared.
The five commitments I have set out throughout this campaign are based on those values. They are not all that Labour will do in Government, but they set out the kind of choices that Labour in Government will make.
Labour has a vision for the kind of country we can become. I call it the Fair Society. A society built on a prosperous, sustainable and enterprising economy, on personal liberty, and on social solidarity.
Building a Fair Society means that no community gets left behind. Across Ireland, there are communities where every strand of disadvantage comes together at once. These are the communities where the Celtic Tiger has not addressed problems of poor housing, poor employment prospects, and intergenerational disadvantage.
Labour in Government will begin a major push to address the problems faced by these communities. We will fast-track investment from the NDP into disadvantaged communities, in what we will call the 'Fair Deal' initiative.
We will make a concerted effort to tackle educational disadvantage, and to addressing shortages in the educational psychology service. And, we will breath fresh life and political will into the national drugs strategy, which I set up in the 1990s, to combat the plague of drugs in our communities.
Labour will be the engine of change that drives the next Government, maintaining prosperity and building a Fair Society.
