Fine Gael National Press Office Press Release

..................................................................

Fine Gael Leader Enda Kenny's Ard Fheis Speech at Citywest, Saggart on Saturday 31st March 2007

Introduction

Thank you, Lucinda. Go raibh maith agat. Thank you all for coming here in such huge numbers. And thank you to everyone joining us at home. It's been another long week. For some it's been chaotic, the weekly assault-course of the job and traffic, school and childminding, balancing working and living. I'm a working father myself. I know what that's like. That's why I know that time and family are the most precious things we have now.

So, I'm not going to waste your family time by giving you what you've come to know and dread as politics as usual. Instead I'm going to talk to you about. Politics as it should be. Government as it could be. And how together we can build a better Ireland.

And to make sure that we do at the next election, I'm going to offer you something the people of Ireland have never had before. A contract. A political contract which I call the Contract for a Better Ireland. Conradh le Muintir na hÉireann. Because all over this country people have had it 'up to here' with being caught in the gap between the Two Irelands.

The Ireland where the economy you've built with your hard work is running strongly. And the Ireland where the vital services we need are falling desperately, dangerously behind. To close that gap, I intend to lead a government that will work harder than any previous government. That will make the people's priorities their priorities and haul our public services up to the standard of the economy. That will drive dignity, resources and, above all, respect into our healthcare system.

A Better Ireland

So what do I mean by a better Ireland? It's the Ireland you've told me you want as I've travelled the length and breadth of this country listening to your stories, your plans, your hopes. It's an Ireland where we feel we belong because we feel respected, safe, valued from the moment we come into this life, to the moment we leave it, our hard work, our ingenuity, our success, making a better life, a richer life for everybody. It's an Ireland where the health services work. More beds, hospitals that are safe and clean, children with a healthy future.

Where the streets are safe for our families, our businesses, our communities. Where a government invests our wealth to meet the needs of the people. Where it taxes wisely and spends the people's money as carefully as they would their own. It's where we live up to our responsibilities as global citizens looking after the environment looking for new ways to manage waste for new sources of energy to make our world a better world.

In a better Ireland we embrace the full potential of a lasting peace on this island, a prospect which is now within sight following the very welcome agreement between Sinn Féin and the DUP to restore devolved government from next month. I commit myself to work closely as Taoiseach with the elected representatives of Northern Ireland through the power-sharing institutions, to build a better Ireland, North and South. Our Better Ireland will be one which continues to be a valued voice in Europe and beyond.

A Better Ireland is one where education for all, is not a system, but a fundamental right, giving children the chance to play, to explore, to create, to discover, because we teach them not just to learn, but to think. It's where we protect the economic progress of the last 15 years, where we compete internationally, growing our wealth into the confident, ambitious generations to come.

And if you think that better Ireland can't come soon enough, I agree with you.

And tonight, in talking about this better Ireland, I'm reminded of what my own father believed. He was a TD. He believed that no government can do everything. Because everything is not their job. But what is their job, is to do what they say they will do. That was his view of government's duty. And it's mine. Work hard, do the job, keep your promises.

This lesson was strengthened in me, in my years as a young principal teacher, before being elected to Dáil Éireann. It's what I intend to do every day of the next government. It's how I will build our better Ireland.

Broken Promises

And that time is coming soon. Tá sé ag teacht. Because this evening, you don't need me to tell you what's wrong with this country. We stand in the wreckage of broken promises. We are knee deep in the wreckage of broken promises. This Government's record speaks for itself.

They promised to end waiting lists in our hospitals by 2004. They failed. Ask any woman told to wait 18 months for a life-saving operation. Ask her husband and her small children. Ask any of the 40,000 people whose operations were cancelled in the last two years. Or the 29,000 people currently on waiting lists. Every one of them was failed at a very difficult time in their lives.

They promised maximum value for money in public projects. What they delivered was the PPARS health computer system and electronic voting machines. They promised 'no more revolving doors' in our overcrowded jails. But 3,000 prisoners were released early from jail last year.

They made a specific commitment to reduce class sizes. They failed. They promised to reduce - significantly - waiting times at A&E units. The result, as you know, is a national disgrace. And nobody accepts responsibility for any of these failures.

And if you're looking at all our wealth, all our hard-work, all our opportunity, asking, after all those years, after all we've spent, after all we've done, look where we are, is this it? My answer to you is NO. Absolutely not.

This is a great country. But we can still do so much better. We can be so much better. And we've spent so long waiting we just can't wait any more. Waiting for beds, waiting on trolleys, waiting for operations, waiting for a school place, waiting for Gardaí, waiting in traffic, waiting for a house. My Bond

Well I don't know about you, but I've had enough of waiting. I've had enough of broken promises. Because when I became leader of Fine Gael I didn't make my bond just with the Party. No, I made my bond with the people.

The Contract for a Better Ireland

And because I did, I've come here to offer you my word, my bond in this contract. The Contract for a Better Ireland. Conradh le Muintir na hÉireann.

We will begin with our number-one priority, health services that work. Like every parent in Ireland, I love my children more than life itself. And when your child wakes you up in the middle of the night, pains in their head, burning up and red all over, the cost of the doctor, money should never be the deciding factor in whether you take the chance. Is it a heat rash, or could it be something more serious?

That's why our Contract for a Better Ireland will give you:

- Free health insurance for every child under 16, and
- Free GP visits for every child under five.
- And when you, and our extraordinary nurses and doctors tell us you don't just want more hospital beds... you desperately need more hospital beds... we believe you.

Our Contract for a Better Ireland will give you:
- 2,300 more hospital beds as we have committed to delivering with the Labour Party.
- Beds that will get you and the people you love off trolleys and give them the medical attention they deserve.

It says a lot about this country now that while there's never been a worse time to be sick in Ireland, unfortunately there's never been a better time to be a criminal. In the last three years: Murder is up 43%. Gun crime up 39%. Rape up 25%. The only thing going down seems to be detection rates. Because we want communities to start feeling safe again, our Contract will deal with crime.

It will give you 2,000 more Gardaí, fully trained on the streets, on the beat, men and women of the highest professionalism and probity, looking out for you and your families.

Our Contract for a Better Ireland will give you:
- Tougher sentences for criminals.
- We'll make sure those who do the crime, will do the time.
- No more automatic reduction of sentences.

And so to the most important people of all our children. For our children, the early years are the magic years. In the time it takes the rest of us to get a little greyer, they manage to acquire a personality, they learn to walk, to talk, to become fluent in a whole new language. Sometimes, even two. Just imagine what they could do with the opportunity of a year's pre-school education? Well that's exactly what they'll get with our contract.

Right now, it is our children, whose education is suffering, because of the failure to manage the rapid increase in immigration into this country. I see this change as both a challenge and an opportunity, but it must be managed in a way that emphasises people's rights and responsibilities, keeps Ireland safe, and improves, not threatens, our working and living standards. Our contract will create a Ministry for Immigration Affairs to take charge and to develop a system that is good for the Irish and good for the immigrants.

In this global age, there is no question that we have a duty not just to our country, but to the well-being of our planet. With our Contract for a Better Ireland, we will lead by example, setting targets for every government agency to reduce its carbon footprint, we will invest in the development of renewable energy, we will cut taxes on bio fuels and encourage their growth, and we will reward people who drive lower emission cars with reduced taxes.

Which brings me to money and the waste of it - hundreds of millions squandered by this government. Well you can say this much about FF and the PDs, they do have one great skill -when they have your money to burn they go right ahead and they burn it.

We will do things very differently. Instead of discounting billions wasted, we will ensure your money is spent wisely and in your interest. We will set budgets, reach targets, demand accountability, get results.

Our Contract will make this crystal clear. Any Minister reckless with the people's money will be dismissed. You need accountability and I will see that it is delivered. On my watch, no more electronic voting machines, no more PPARS health computer systems, no more excuses.

By being prudent with your money, by stopping the waste, we will be able to improve public services and keep more money in your pocket, helping you to deal with the rising cost of living.

Well, our Contract gives you:

- Lower income taxes for every taxpayer - every taxpayer.
- We will give specific relief to families where someone stays home to care for a child or a parent.
- And lastly, an end to Stamp Duty as we know it. Lower rates for everyone. And we will abolish stamp duty for almost all first-time buyers.

Government should be in the business of helping people buy their home, not standing in their way. That's our Contract for a Better Ireland. Straightforward commitments that will build a better Ireland.

The Commitment

Last week, another man stood in this hall and made 53 promises. I will give you just one. After years of cynicism about politics and politicians, after years of deception and broken promises, I believe it's about time a politician stepped up to the line and took responsibility for their actions in government. I am that politician. If you enter into this contract with me, you give me a mandate for a better Ireland and I will deliver it. And when you examine your contract you will see and understand that all governments, all leaders, all choices, are not all the same.

Tonight then, I want to be absolutely clear. Having fulfilled this contract, and only having fulfilled this contract, will I stand again, before you, the people of Ireland, and ask you to re-elect me as Taoiseach. And if I have not, I will not. Because if you have lived up to your side of the contract. If you have given me the most precious, the most powerful thing a democrat has your vote. Then I have a moral duty, a democratic duty, a patriotic duty, to live up to my end of the contract. I believe it's vital that you know just how serious I am. Just how serious this is.

Countdown

Because in a few weeks you will choose the kind of government we get. One mark on the ballot paper. Will it be our Ireland the contract Ireland. Where, yes, you will get a strong economy. But the difference is you will also get a government that looks out for you, that will deliver the services you need to make your life better. Or will it be the FF PD Ireland. Where we are now, where services still lag behind, promises are just words, and the Government has broken them now for ten long years. That's the choice. It's up to you.

Your single vote will make or break the next government. Your single vote will decide how the money is spent, what the priorities are, the lives that we will live, for the next five years and beyond. Use it well. And come Election Day, when you stand in the polling booth, pencil in hand, know that. This is it.

Leaders may lead, but in the end it is the people themselves who govern. For that vital few seconds, as you vote, you are completely in charge. And because you are, you can vote for the Contract, vote for the services, vote for a Better Ireland. So, if you've had it up to here with politicians promising to solve all your problems, while at the same time they try to persuade you the problems don't exist, then I would ask you to sign the Contract for a Better Ireland and Vote Fine Gael.

If you want a hospital bed when you need it, free health insurance and GP visits for your children, sign the Contract, Vote Fine Gael. If you want more Gardaí on the streets protecting you, a system that puts victims before criminals. Sign the Contract, Vote Fine Gael.

If you want to make it easier to afford a new house or trade up or trade down, sign the Contract, Vote Fine Gael. If you want real accountability in government and a halt to wasteful spending, sign the Contract, Vote Fine Gael. If you give me the mandate, I will deliver.

Conclusion

Today, every day, we make and sign contracts in so many areas of our lives. But I leave you for now with thoughts of one man who kept his contract, kept his word. His name was James McGinley. He was a lighthouse keeper on our Atlantic west coast. Just a lighthouse keeper. Not famous, not rich, but crucially important. Cross the Atlantic, and he was the first, and last Irishman, the first and last European. In his ordinary life, with his ordinary family, in his ordered lighthouse, he didn't just keep the light, he kept his contract,. that was his job.

Whatever the weather he had to...it was up to him... people depended on him for their lives. You see, James McGinley was my grandfather. He kept his contract and he used it to look out for people, to make their journey better, to bring them safely home. So tonight, people of Ireland, Muintir na hÉireann, I give you, our light, our contract. Not just as the next Taoiseach or as the proud Leader of Fine Gael - I give it to you with all I have in public life, my word, my honour, my bond.

You give me the mandate and I will show you how a good government works, first and always, in your interest, in the country's interest. A government of vision and responsibility. A government of passion and professionalism. A government that deals with today's problems - and never loses sight of tomorrow's great possibilities. Because it has a contract with the people. So, together let us make that Contract. Together let us keep our bond. Together let us build a Better Ireland.