New Jobs Top Priority in Irish Campaigning

With one in five Irish now unemployed, Ireland’s main opposition leader John Bruton Friday made job creation his top priority in the general election campaign.

Launching his party manifesto for the Nov. 25 vote, the Fine Gael leader also offered an olive branch to any other opposition parties ready to form a coalition government with him.

Bruton, who launched the election campaign by calling Prime Minister Albert Reynolds “the biggest bully in the schoolyard,” said the Irish leader had left behind record unemployment and record high home loan rates.

Bruton, whose party had 55 of the 166 seats in the outgoing Parliament, said: “Employment is our top priority. Unemployment excludes and marginalizes 300,000 people. It is the principal cause of poverty.”

Reynolds’ government collapsed Thursday.