FIANNA FAIL hopes to spend between £1.5 and £2 billion on tax reform if returned to government, its leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said yesterday. The final amount would depend on economic growth and the control of public expenditure.
Spread over five years, the taxation reform programme offered up to £500 million more than that promised by the Government parties. And it paid particular attention to upper income earners, while setting a new 20 per cent tax rate.
This new rate would be available for all workers, on their first £2,000 of taxable income, and on £4,000 for a married couple.
Most of the rest of the money would be used to widen tax bands. The top rate of tax would drop from 48 to 43 per cent over five years. Culling the standard rate from 26 to 20 per cent, as circumstances allowed, would be the aim. Nobody should have to pay more than 50 per cent of their income in tax, PRSI and other levies.
By that stage, the gap between the taxation approaches of Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats yawned like a chasm. Mr Ahern was committed to maintaining the PRSI system and the Social Insurance Fund "as an expression of social solidarity". The Progressive Democrats would abolish PRSI. Mr Ahern envisaged a maximum tax take of less than 50 per cent; the Progressive Democrats wanted 40 per cent. Mr Ahern gave no firm commitment on a reduction of the 26 per cent band; the Progressive Democrats promised a standard rate of 20 per cent.
There were other commitments, already published, on a range of elements like crime, drugs, disadvantage, health, education, agriculture and the semi state sector. Young middleclass married couples were promised relief - through tax allowances of £2,000 at the standard rate - for a spouse who stays at home to look after children. A similar amount could be offset against charges for creches and for registered child minders for married couples who went out to work.
After that, the 144 page document became as woolly and aspirational as the 21 goals produced by the Coalition parties.
An unspecified limit was to be placed on government debt. And in spite of public pay demands and commitments on social issues, current spending was to be held at 4 per cent or less a year.
At the same time, with a huge demand for infrastructural investment at a time of diminishing EU structural funds, capital spending was to be held at 5 per cent.
An unspecified limit was to be placed on government debt. And in spite of public pay demands and commitments on social issues, current spending was to be held at 4 per cent or less a year.
And then the abortion issue raised its preplanned head. No. Mr Ahern didn't think abortion would be an election issue. But the Fianna Fail leader was personally committed to dealing with the issue if he was returned to government. Unlike John Bruton and Dick Spring, he could not ignore what the Supreme Court had said in the X case.
But Mr Ahern left journalists guessing as to what, precisely, he intended to do. The matter could be dealt with by a combination of legislation and referendum, he offered, perhaps under Section 27 of the Constitution.
A Green Paper would be prepared on the issue in government, he said, which would take into account the recommendations made by an internal party commission. That document would form the basis of future government action.
The Progressive Democrats appeared to be distinctly underwhelmed. Having argued in favour of legislation on the basis of the Supreme Court judgment in the X case, rather than another referendum, the party was in a bind. There was no direct comment on Mr Ahern's initiative. The party would have to await a recommendation from the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, where Michael McDowell represented the party, a spokesman said.
Within hours, Fianna Fail appeared to modify its position. The Green Paper on abortion and all other matters would have to be referred to that same Oireachtas committee, which would then make a recommendation.
Des Hanafin and Pro Life Campaign members were so upset that they cancelled their press conference, which had been designed to welcome Mr Ahern's initiative. They wanted information and clarification about what, exactly, Mr Ahern had in mind.
Last night Fianna Fail spin doctors were trying to bury the issue. They should be so lucky. The abortion genie is again out of the bottle.