Fine Gael Leader, Mr Michael Noonan has accused Fianna Fáil-leaning elements of the media of conducting a direct and focused attack on Fine Gael since he became leader last year.
In an interview with TV3's Agenda, Mr Noonan said: "I'm not sure why but it certainly has been very focused and very direct and almost across the whole media."
Asked if he was alleging that there are Fianna Fáil "plants" in the media, Mr Noonan said: "No, there are no plants at all, there are just people who nail their colours to the mast and they see things in one direction." He went on: "I think after five years in government, effectively there are Fianna Fáil people everywhere and they are prepared to do the work for the party."
Accusing Mr Noonan of "shooting the messenger", Fianna Fáil's Mr Willie O'Dea said his "bizarre outburst" indicated "a high level of paranoia".
Instead of trying "to find X-Files style conspiracies in the media", Mr O'Dea said Mr Noonan should answer the questions raised about Fine Gael's economic policy. In his TV3 interview, Mr Noonan insisted that Fine Gael is being under-estimated by the opinion polls which fail to reflect the party's likely share of the "don't knows".
"The analysis based on the facts isn't good. Wrong deductions are being drawn. This is an open race, I am going to fight this on issues. The Taoiseach is going to fight this on posters and pictures and I'm going to bring him back to the issues," said Mr Noonan.
