.....pants on fire.

You know how the rhyme goes ...., ...., pants on fire.

Can you spot the lies here?

The following is from the Fianna Fail election manifesto of 2002. Remember while you are reading this that Bertie Ahern and Fianna Fail have presided over the wealthiest period of our nation's history (and I am talking all the way back to the Vikings!).


Five years ago Bertie and Co promised to

• - Permanently end waiting lists in our hospitals within two years through a combination of bed capacity, primary care, secondary care and targeted reform initiatives

• - Extend medical card eligibility to over 200,000 extra people, with a clear priority being given to families with children.

• - Expand public hospital beds in line with a programme to increase total capacity by 3,000 during the period of the strategy.

• - Achieving the situation where 80% of taxpayers pay only the standard rate.- We will continue to reduce the pupil: teacher ratio in our schools. Over the next five years we will progressively introduce maximum class guidelines which will ensure that the average size of classes for children under 9 will be below the international best-practise guide of 20:1.

• - We will commit to a further expansion of the various social housing programmes so that we reach a target of meeting the housing needs of 15,000 households per annum.

• - Increase the number of civilians attached to the force so that trained police officers are released to operational duties tackling crime and defending our citizens.

• - Fianna Fail will on return to government ensure that a low cost facility is built at Pier D in Dublin Airport in time for the 2003 season.

• - Ensure the construction of a state of the art National Conference Centre and aggressively promote Ireland as a venue for international conference business

• - We will ensure the putting in place of open-access broadband on a national basis, to fully include rural communities.

• - We recognise the central importance of the Freedom of Information Act in ensuring transparent and accountable public administration. We will ensure that the Act covers all significant areas of public services, involving both those currently in place and such new services as may be established in the future.

Bertie and Co have had the power, the money and the opportunity so tell me why FF has not delivered?