The Labour Party has proposed a new rates scheme and improved measures to help the unemployed get back to work in its local election manifesto.
The document, which was published this morning, contains measures the party claims will help stem job losses, develop the economy and “provide a more democratic citizenship based on fairness and respect”.
Among the proposals is an incremental rates scheme, which will allow start-up companies to pay discounted rates over specified period of time. Labour would also end exemptions of State-owned property from the rates base.
The party also pledging to use existing county and city development boards as jobs task forces that would bring together training schemes and chambers of commerce to tackle local unemployment.
It would also provide job-seeking advice and resources for the unemployed through libraries.
Other measures address the issue of housing and the delivery of local services. It suggests some powers of Government, such as building schools or distributing National Lottery Funds, should be transferred to local government.
Party leader Eamon Gilmore said Ireland was facing an economic emergency, which requires action at every level of government. “Labour’s focus in these elections is jobs, but it would be a false economy to neglect the society that our economic recovery depends on,” he said.
The party’s housing and local government spokesman, Ciaran Lynch, said the manifesto “sets out to create a community in which we can get our country back on its feet in a fair way”.