Labour Party delegates at a special conference in Kilkenny will today debate the economy and the current crisis in the banking sector.
The event opens this morning with an address by party chairman Brian O’Shea. Party leader Eamon Gilmore will deliver an address, to be televised live, this evening.
Motions on today’s agenda call for the Irish banking sector to be adequately capitalised to ensure that personal and commercial borrowers can access the credit they need.
A motion proposed by the party’s national executive also calls for new rules to ensure strong capital reserves for all financial institutions that deal with loans and debt.
On the economy, delegates will also discuss “the rapid slide into recession of the Irish economy, the huge increase of 2000 per week in the numbers unemployed, the problems in the public finances and the difficulties facing the economy in the months ahead”.
The motion to be debated this morning claims there has been an absence of effective Government action to deal with the jobs crisis, or to promote growth and job creation.
It also condemns the “reckless handling of the economy by Fianna Fáil, their stoking of the property boom through property-based tax incentives, their failure to maintain a competitive export-led economy and to build a fairer society”.
The resolution says Labour, in government, would put in place a positive programme to kick-start the economy and to protect jobs.
A plan to reform the organisation and rules of the party, which would strengthen the leadership and weaken the role of trade unions, will be discussed at the special conference tomorrow.