LAST week I mentioned that the first rule of reporting on general elections was not taking at face value the private opinion poll data peddled by the main political parties.

Lesson two has to be approaching with the greatest of caution the scare stories propagated by the same sources.

A case in point was last week when Fianna Fail attempted to smear Fine Gael and Labour over corporation taxation.

The attack had all the hallmarks of Fianna Fail's 'red scare' warning about Mary Robinson during the 1990 presidential election. Back then an election Fianna Fail thought it would win was slipping away from the party.

And back then the scare was irrelevant and Fianna Fail ultimately tasted defeat. Since the start of the current contest, we have been listening to Fianna Fail grumbles that because of the concentration on Bertie Ahern's funny money there has been no debate about the real issues.

Fianna Fail had its shot at real issues last Wednesday morning, but all the party could deliver was a threadbare excuse for a made-up row. Brian Cowen, Seamus Brennan and Dermot Ahern trooped into the Treasury Buildings media centre.

Their warning: you can't trust Fine Gael and Labour to maintain the 12.5% tax on business in the face of EU moves to harmonise the corporate tax regime among members states. They quoted from Proinsias de Rossa in the European Parliament. This was their dubious basis for sending the women and children of Ireland into a nervous spin. The trio then misrepresented the history of how Ireland arrived at this low-tax regime and also the current position of the main opposition parties.

It's the economy stupid Let's recap. At the end of 1994 when Fianna Fail left office the main corporation tax rate was 40%. In the first Rainbow coalition budget, finance minister Ruairi Quinn said he would reduce the top figure by 2% each year to move it closer to the lower 10% rate levied on internationally traded services. Before they left office in mid-1997, the Rainbow coalition had agreed on a single 12.5% corporation tax rate and the EU Commission was informed. The government subsequently changed and the new finance minister, Charlie McCreevy, oversaw the new corporation tax regime with a 12.5% rate from the start of 2003. There is no difference between any of the main parties on the 12.5% rate in the current election. The big danger actually comes from EU moves to harmonise the corporate tax base which would allow each member state set its own rate, but would see companies pay tax in the country in which their business takes place, not where they have a headquarters. So companies located in Ireland but selling products elsewhere in the EU would pay part of their tax in the state in which the products are sold. Cowen has said he would veto such a proposal, but his threat fails to recognise that if the big member states want to proceed with this policy they will do so without the Irish. After all, British opposition did not prevent a two-tier EU emerging on the euro. So we should be concerned about corporation tax but not about the ability of Richard Bruton and Ruairi Quinn to defend our interests.

Breaking up is hard to do but FF and the PDs don't even keep in touch. . .

CONFUSION continued last week about Fianna Fail's 'it's a promise/it's not a promise' SSIA scheme for pensions.

Party documents say the scheme "will" be introduced but Brian Cowen says it's a "maybe", dependent on postelection talks with unions and employers. The party also can't put a cost on this plan to attract votes.

Funny, then, that when the Progressive Democrats unveiled a similar scheme last week they costed it at 150m. It would be aimed at 100,000 people currently without pensions and earning less than 66,000 a year.

These guys were partners once but do they talk anymore?

If photo-ops were votes, the PDs would have this election in the bag THE PDs are taking a thumping in the election campaign . . . self-inflicted and otherwise . . . but the party is still making the running in the picture count. Everyone recalls Michael McDowell up the lamp post in Ranelagh with his 'Single Party Government . . . No Thanks' poster. But it was just one of several strong images which saw the PDs win the picture battle in 2002.

Already in this campaign the papers have lapped up photo-ops of the PDs' giant ballot paper on the choice for health minister and last week's poster with a 'long-lasting prosperity' battery. Now all they need is a few votes.

PAT Rabbitte returned on Friday morning from a flying visit to the south west to news of a positive opinion poll for his party. He was asked about the Taoiseach's claim that Enda Kenny's lack of tradeunion experience might prevent the Fine Gael leader operating as an industrial relations troubleshooter. A former trade union official, Rabbitte noted that he had never been able to track down Ahern's union membership card. "Maybe it's a bit like his attendance at the London School of Economics, " Rabbitte added.