[lg policy] Ireland: Fine Gael promises to create 100,000 jobs

Wed Feb 16 16:12:12 UTC 2011

Fine Gael promises to create 100,000 jobs

    * Fine Gael’s manifesto | 16/02/2011

HARRY McGEE, Political Correspondent

MANIFESTO: FINE GAEL’S election manifesto has promised that the party,
if elected to government, will create 100,000 jobs, reduce the public
sector by 30,000, and renegotiate the IMF-EU rescue package.

Party leader Enda Kenny launched the 80-page document at the Royal
College of Physicians in Dublin yesterday.

The manifesto described Fine Gael’s five-point plan for economic
recovery and its specific policies in 21 sectors from agriculture to
transport. The five-point plan has identified growth and jobs, deficit
reduction, smaller government, political reform and universal health
insurance as the key areas to allow Ireland recover from its current
crisis.

In the chapter on banking and debt distress, the document has promised
that a Fine Gael government will make the system an engine of economic
recovery.

Its first priority, it has stated, is to renegotiate the EU-IMF
programme. The party said that forcing Ireland to borrow up to €25
billion in additional funds from the EU and IMF at an interest rate of
5.8 per cent would “push Irish government debt towards unsustainable
levels and hinder economic recovery, threatening the stability of the
entire euro area”.

The party’s finance spokesman, Michael Noonan, told the news
conference: “Unless the bailout package is made more affordable, there
is a high risk, without anybody taking a policy decision, banks will
run into default positions.”

Fine Gael will undertake to renegotiate a “more credible and fairer
package” if given a mandate.

There are no new policy initiatives contained in the document, with
the possible exception of a formal confirmation that the party will
reverse the ban on stag hunting if elected to government.

Mr Kenny said yesterday that the section on the Irish language
contained new elements, namely his and the party’s commitment to the
language.

However, the chapter – written in Irish – is a word-for-word
reproduction of the Irish language policy unveiled earlier this month.

Irish-language activists have objected to the party formally adopting
a position in which Irish would no longer be compulsory for the
Leaving Certificate.

The manifesto contains summaries of major Fine Gael policy papers. The
New Era policy has committed the party to investing €7 billion in
infrastructure, funded by the National Pension Reserve Fund and also
from the sell-off of some State assets.

Its FairCare proposal on health is described in the manifesto as the
“most ambitious plan for health reform since the establishment of the
State”. The policy is directed at dismantling the HSE and replacing it
with a system of universal health insurance, starting in 2016. The
party will also seek 8,000 redundancies in this sector. Under the
system, all citizens will have private health insurance though public
hospitals will remain in public ownership, albeit run on a trust
system.

The party also restated its commitment to abolish the Seanad and
reduce the number of TDs by 20.

Under the tax heading, the party commits to retaining corporation tax
at 12.5 per cent and not increasing income taxes or employers’ PRSI.

VAT will be lowered by 1 per cent at the lower rate and increased by 1
per cent at the higher rate.

The document also commits to abolishing over 145 State agencies and
quangos, implementing the McCarthy report recommendations in full, and
reducing the numbers employed in the public sector by 30,000 (18,000
by voluntary redundancy, the balance by non-replacement of retirees).

The document also indicates that local authorities will have more
control over their funding (including the eventual right to charge
residents for essential services). The document also states that water
utilities will have to be run on a commercial and self-financing
basis, a signal that such companies will charge consumers for the use
of water. Mr Noonan confirmed as much yesterday.

FINE GAEL MANIFESTO: MAIN POINTS

Renegotiate the EU-IMF deal

Invest €7 billion in New Era infrastructure plan and create 100,000 jobs

Begin dismantling HSE from 2016 in favour of model of universal health insurance

Abolish Seanad and reduce number of TDs by 20 to 146.

No new income taxes; no change to corporation tax

Possible new indirect charges for water and local services

Reduce number of personnel in public sector by 30,000

Achieve 10 per cent savings in public sector

Reverse ban on stag hunting

End compulsory Irish in Leaving Certificate cycle

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0216/1224289929211.html

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