GREEN PARTY chairman Dan Boyle has described the Finance Bill as “the longest death wish in Irish political history”. Unlike finance Bills before the last two elections, this one was “hardly an election Finance Bill”.
Mr Boyle said that while concentration might be on the “banking mess”, the “reality is that our biggest problem is our public finances, and this has been caused by a decade or more of spending too much and taxing too little”.
He said “where we will be ending up in taxation and expenditure terms is probably where we should be anyway. Pain is being caused because the adjustment is happening too quickly and too much for many of our citizens.”
He said it did not give his party any particular pleasure, but the Finance Bill had to be passed.
Referring to criticism from Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan about the Greens pulling out of Government before taxation matters for civil partnerships could be dealt with in the Bill, he welcomed that Mr Lenihan said the Green Party “had pushed most strongly” for civil partnership.
He also claimed the Green Party had campaigned against postponing section 23 reliefs on residential property into 2012, and said they should be given credit for the changes in the universal social charge and for the tax on bankers’ bonuses.
Fine Gael finance spokesman Dr Liam Twomey claimed Micheál Martin “is leading a party that is less popular than Sinn Féin, yet he is demanding leadership debates. The idea of him giving leadership is comical. The people will not take much notice when Fianna Fáil candidates come to their doors in the coming weeks offering empty promises with a bunch of €1.99 flowers under their arms.”
Shane Ross (Ind) described the legislation as shameful and humiliating, and asked whether the terms of the EU-IMF deal were “acceptable or affordable”.
He asked “why were the bondholders not burnt?”
He described the Croke Park agreement as an “untouched political sacred cow” and said “the power of the social partners who feathered their nests at the taxpayers’ expense should also have been addressed. We should have said we will no longer be dictated to by outside forces.”
When Mr Ross asked why the Government had not reduced semi-State budgets such as CIÉ from €300 million to €150 million, Minister of State Martin Mansergh replied: “Because some of us use public transport.”
Alex White (Lab) said he agreed with Mr Lenihan that reconfiguring Ireland’s debt could be not be dealt with unilaterally, but that did not mean it should not be pursued. “It must be done in a way that had regard to our interests and our influence.”