THE LABOUR Party has opened its election campaign with a promise not to increase income taxes on people earning less than €100,000 a year if elected to government.
Party leader Eamon Gilmore said the commitment would appear in Labour’s policy document on taxation to be published today. The party would also be proposing changes to the universal social charge to mitigate its effects on lower-income families.
Launching the party’s election campaign yesterday morning, Mr Gilmore said Labour’s platform was based on three clear principles: jobs, reform and fairness.
The party’s plans for greater fairness in society would embrace a more just taxation system, an end to the two-tier health system and an approach to public sector reform based on outcomes.
He said Labour would cut another 18,000 public sector jobs but this would be achieved through voluntary redundancies and early retirement as part of an overall reform package. Other parties have suggested up to 30,000 jobs will have to go in the public sector but Mr Gilmore said this could be achieved only through compulsory redundancies.
Asked whether he would make a commitment to voluntary redundancies a condition of Labour participation in any coalition, he said the party was seeking a mandate from the people based on its own policy. Labour intends to launch new policy documents on almost every day of the campaign, with the party’s manifesto not appearing until February 11th.
Mr Gilmore claimed the election was a three-way contest between Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Labour. Opinion polls showed Labour could win the election, with only 6 per cent separating the party and Fine Gael in the one poll published yesterday.
“For the first time ever in the 90-year history of this State, we can elect a government which is led by neither Fianna Fáil nor Fine Gael. For the first time people have a choice, to elect a government led by Labour.”
Labour in government would “stand up for Ireland” by renegotiating the EU-IMF deal and the budgetary “straitjacket” imposed by Fianna Fáil. It was not acceptable that financial institutions were making a profit on the deal at the expense of the Irish taxpayer.
He claimed Fine Gael talked about renegotiating the IMF deal but was in fact comfortable with the austerity it demands.
Asked about the controversy over Pat Rabbitte’s remarks concerning female members of the Fianna Fáil front bench, Mr Gilmore said no one in the Labour Party had done more than Mr Rabbitte to promote the interests of women. Mr Rabbitte had an outstanding track record in the promotion of women and he had already apologised for the remarks.
The launch of the Labour campaign took place in the Gravity Bar at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and was attended by the party’s 68 election candidates.
