Fianna Fáil has said it will avoid negative campaigning ahead of the general election as it unveiled a billboard outlining broken promises by the Government in the health service.

Party leader Micheál Martin said the poster was an attempt to highlight the failure of the coalition to end the trolley crisis.

Mr Martin said: “Policy is fundamental to any election campaign. Highlighting policy failures is a very fair and valid thing to do in a general election.. It is not negative campaigning. It is a political message.”

The party's first poster of the campaign features a prominent photograph of Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Fine Gael logo.

It reads “I won’t end the scandal of patients lying on trolleys. Tax cuts for the wealthiest come first”.

The only mention of Fianna Fáil on the poster is the party’s website address and the phrase: “There’s a fairer way”.

Mr Martin said this was a legitimate position for the party to take.

Asked if it could backfire the Fianna Fail leader insisted: “Not at all.”

The party leader said Fianna Fail will be central to its own campaign and he will feature heavily in their posters.

Speaking later on Wednesday Taoiseach Enda Kenny responded to the advertisement with a sardonic question: “Should I be terrified?”

Portraying it as a personal attack on him, he said: “Nobody in my party will indulge in personal attack.”

He said Mr Martin had promised a lot when he was minister for health but had not delivered. Mr Kenny said that had included hospital trolleys.