Sharp differences between Fine Gael and Labour emerged over the weekend as the election campaign got under way in advance of the dissolution of the Dáil tomorrow.
In a significant move, Labour pulled back from its commitment to the €15 billion budget adjustment target by 2015, opening up a serious division with its potential coalition partner, while Fine Gael last night attacked Labour’s newly-unveiled jobs policy.
Speaking after the launch of Labour’s jobs policy, leader Eamon Gilmore said the budget adjustment over the next three years should be €2 billion less than the terms of the EU-IMF bailout.
He said that instead of the planned €9 billion adjustment between 2012 and 2014, he wanted one of €7 billion, with the timeframe for bringing the budget deficit below the EU ceiling of 3 per cent of gross domestic product being extended by a year to 2016.
Announcing his party’s jobs policy, Mr Gilmore said it would involve ring-fencing €500 million for initiatives designed to get people back to work. “We need to set up a trade council, establish an innovation strategy agency and create a network of technology research centres.”
Fine Gael attacked the policy, with party enterprise spokesman Richard Bruton saying it avoided the obstacles to job creation such as high business costs, unnecessary red tape and welfare traps.
“Labour places all its faith in raising €500 million for a vague ‘jobs fund’ that will see politicians and State agencies seeking to influence for their own agendas. It is not clear if this ‘jobs fund’ would even yield a return for taxpayers.
“The real challenge is to be smarter with the money we already have, and to tackle problems within government control.”
Mr Bruton said Fine Gael in government would invest in badly needed modern infrastructure, lower business costs, open up sheltered sectors of the economy to competition, target youth unemployment and reform the way the public service interacted with business.
Earlier yesterday Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny rejected Mr Gilmore’s criticism of him for opening talks at the weekend with EU Commission president José Manuel Barroso on the terms of the Irish bailout.
“I will never apologise for using the international network and respect that Fine Gael has built over many decades to further our national interests,” Mr Kenny told a gathering of his party’s election candidates yesterday.
As the gaps began to open between Fine Gael and Labour, new Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin signalled he may be prepared to support a minority Fine Gael government from the opposition benches.
Speaking during a canvass in his Cork South Central constituency, Mr Martin denied there was any confusion over suggestions he made about his party’s possible stance in opposition.
“My message is absolutely clear, people can put all sorts of spins and hypotheses on it and extrapolate all they want. What I’m saying is that it’s policy and the programme of each party that matters, and the implementation of that programme.”
Three Fianna Fáil Ministers of State - Barry Andrews, Dara Calleary and Billy Kelleher - will be among those promoted when Mr Martin announces his front bench this afternoon. He has convened a meeting of senior party TDs at 2pm, after which the new front bench will be announced.
Two prominent Fianna Fáil TDs announced yesterday they would not be contesting the election, to the surprise of party activists in their respective constituencies.
Donegal North East TD Niall Blaney said he was standing down for personal reasons, while Cork North Central TD Noel O’Flynn said he would not run in order to maximise the chances of his constituency colleague Billy Kelleher. Mr Martin said he had asked Mr O’Flynn last week to consider not running in the election, in the interests of the party.